In Transition
by SheWasaReaderGirl
Summary: Chris's disapproval of Wyatt's twice blessed powers becomes a bigger issue; Allison is put to the ultimate test, while Jessica, Melinda, Madeline, and Prue battle their own demon. *SEQUEL to Power Shift - read that first*
1. Chapter 1

The demon was practically pelting them with fireballs. Henry Jr. was dodging as many as he could, while Melinda continued to freeze any fireball, or demon for that matter, that got too close to any of her cousins. Jessica would follow by sending the immobile fireball back at the demon, but usually her aim was a bit off and she'd miss him almost every time.

Prue and Madeline were fighting off a couple demons using hand-to-hand combat and using their quick reflexes to dodge the occasional attack. Because neither of them had active powers, they'd relied on their mother to teach them how to use their bodies to fight back, rather than their magic.

Henry had just landed a punch of his own on the demon in front of him, but he was startled when that same demon suddenly levitated in the air, his normal eyes glowing red. The glow grew outward, becoming lasers that pierced directly through Henry's heart.

The demons all vanished at once and the dark, cavernous backdrop fizzled into the safe, comforting walls of Magic School. Leo and a female professor were standing near Leo's desk.

Henry sighed. "Let me guess, I failed that test."

"Thank God it wasn't real," Jessica said. "I could have become an only child."

"What about Allison?" Melinda asked.

"Oh right._ Her_." Jessica rolled her eyes, and Leo chose this moment to interrupt the banter.

"What was the lesson this time?" he asked.

Henry shrugged. "I don't know."

"Be prepared for anything," Madeline put in.

"Exactly," Leo said. "Just because a demon consistently fights with the same power, it doesn't mean that he doesn't have a few tricks up his sleeve. Some demons wait until you least expect it to reveal that they have other powers. In this case, Henry would have been killed."

Henry looked aggravated at being called out and crossed his long arms over his chest. His eyes moved down to the floor, not in shame, but in an attitude that said "I am so over this."

On behalf of her brother, Jessica asked, "But wouldn't the Book of Shadows have told us what the demon's powers were?"

Leo raised his eyebrows and looked at Phoebe's two eldest daughters and his own child Melinda. "Anyone have any ideas?"

Madeline shrugged, offering her best guess, "We might be facing the demon before we've had a chance to check the book. Or the demon could be unknown or unidentifiable."

Leo nodded. "More importantly, you can't rely on the book to solve all your problems. You should never go into a battle thinking you know exactly how it'll turn out. You have to, as Madeline put it, be prepared for anything."

"Are we ready for another simulation?" the female professor asked, raising her hands as if she were preparing to create one.

"I think now's a good time for a break," Leo said, shaking his head. The group dispersed, Leo and the professor wandering off to talk amongst themselves and the five teenagers ambled over to the chairs and couches on the other side of the room.

"Well, you guys were awesome," Jessica said, in a tone that showed her frustration that was she was still struggling. "That's the price we pay for being half mortal I guess."

"That's got nothing to do with it," Prue said. "Telekinesis is a tough power to master. Whitney's been having trouble with it too."

"But Whitney hasn't had it her whole life," Jessica said. "Allison is amazing at TK. I have about a five percent accuracy rate."

"Because Allison's been practicing every day since she was born. You need to give it time," Melinda said.

"We've been at this for almost two months," Jessica said.

"But your potions have gotten better," Madeline pointed out. "You're great at everything else."

"Yeah, at least you have that," Henry Jr. said, no lack of attitude in his tone. "And at least you have telekinesis. All I can do is orb, which isn't exactly helpful in battle."

"You can heal, which is very helpful," Prue said.

"Both white lighter powers. I'm not a witch. I shouldn't even be here," Henry said.

"You're only saying that because you don't want to be here," Madeline said. "Besides, you are a witch. Otherwise, you couldn't cast spells, or scry, or make potions. You hardly try."

"I try, but I don't get the point. It's not like you need me."

"Henry, don't say that," Jessica said.

"It's true. Without me, there's still eight of you to carry the load."

"Seven," Prue corrected. "Whitney's still too young."

"Fine, seven. That's still enough, considering our moms only had each other. Hell, Wyatt, Chris, and Allison are doing just fine without any of us. So why does it matter?" Henry asked.

"You know, even if we don't _need _you," Melinda said, "We still want you, and you should want this too. It's part of who you are."

"But it doesn't have to be," Henry said. "Not according to my dad."

"Dad's just scared," Jessica said.

"As well he should be," Henry said. "Almost half of our family could have died last time, including our sister. And it's crap that Mom thinks she has more say than Dad in this. They're _both _our parents, not just her."

"Mom knows how this works," Jessica argued. "If we pretend that this doesn't exist, it's not gonna matter. Demons will still come after us because we're the Charmed Ones now. Dad knows this just as well, but he pretends not to."

"Guys, stop fighting," Prue said.

"Well, we learn from the best," Henry said cynically. Melinda frowned. She'd only been over to their house a few times in the last few months, mainly because every time she went her Aunt Paige and Uncle Henry wound up arguing about this very issue.

"You know what I think you need Henry?" Madeline said.

"What?" he asked, almost dreading the answer.

"You need a connection to the magical world."

"Oh brother," he said, rolling his eyes. "And what exactly does that mean?"

Madeline rested her arms on her knees and leaned forward. "I think you're rejecting this because you feel like you don't belong here. Maybe because you left Magic School earlier than the rest of us, or maybe because you only have white lighter powers. So I think you need something that connects you to this world, outside of your family."

"Like what?" Jessica asked. Henry gave her a look that said, "Why are you encouraging this?"

"Friends," Madeline said.

"I have friends," Henry said adamantly, hating the accusation that he was a friendless loser.

It was Madeline's turn to roll her eyes. "No. Witch friends. People that you can talk to about this stuff. People to confide in. That's what I think you need."

"I really don't," he said.

Madeline shook her head. "I'm an empath, remember? I know these things."

"You can't sense anything from me," Henry argued. All of them, with the exception of Whitney because she was still too young to care, had taken the empath blocking potion once Madeline's powers had started to expand.

"Just because I can't directly feel what you feel doesn't mean I've lost my natural intuitiveness. I can read people really well."

"Well, good for you," he said sarcastically. "Now stop trying to analyze me."

Leo approached them and asked, "Are you guys ready to try another one?"

Henry opened his mouth to object, but Jessica elbowed him, and he shut up, clearly not in the mood for an argument right now. Prue, who during Madeline's psychoanalysis had pulled her PDA out of her pocket, was busy pressing buttons furiously as she sent a message.

"Just one more minute," she said, not looking up.

"I thought I asked you to leave that home, Prue," Leo said. "It always distracts you."

"This is the first time today," she said. "I just need to answer this one email. It's about my project for school."

"School?" Henry asked. "It's summer."

"Boy are you behind," Madeline said.

"Well, I don't live with her like you do. How the hell should I know she's taking summer school?"

"I'm not taking summer school," Prue said, annoyed. "I'm trying out for the school paper next semester and we have to write a bunch of sample articles before they'll let us in." She rolled her eyes and finished typing her message. "Okay, I'm ready."

The girls all stood up and Henry slowly got to his feet. Right now this was the last place he wanted to be.

* * *

The potion that Allison was working on let out a small explosion and she waved her hand to clear the smoke. "Was that supposed to happen?" she asked.

Wyatt shrugged. "Depends what's in it." He walked across the attic of the manor towards her and looked down at the table at the page she had the book open to. He read through the ingredients and nodded. "Looks good so far."

"Well, it should. I'm an ace at making vanquishing potions."

"Then why did you ask?" Wyatt asked with a smile. "You know, just because you've made them before doesn't mean you've always done it correctly."

"Ouch," she said. "You're being brutally honest today."

"You can't learn by being coddled. If I'm tough on you, it's because I care. Now finish the potion so we can get the demon," Wyatt said.

Allison nodded, checking the book for her next ingredient. As she started preparing it, she said, "So I have a question."

"Shoot." He settled back on the couch, watching her carefully.

"At what point am I no longer your charge?" When there was no response, she looked up and saw his face almost blank, like he wasn't sure how to answer. "I mean, eventually I'll get this good enough to be responsible for myself, right? You won't always be standing over my shoulder."

"If it were up to me, I would always be standing over your shoulder," he said. "But I guess I should turn you loose at some point."

"You don't have to worry," Allison said. "I can take care of myself."

"I'm the oldest. I'll always worry."

"You don't worry about Chris," she pointed out.

"I worry," he said.

"But you're not protective of him like you are with us."

"Because Chris isn't really my little brother. I mean, yes, technically he is, but we're so close in age, I forget sometimes. We got into demon hunting at the same time so we've always looked out for each other. I never felt like I needed to protect him."

"Well, you're going to have to let go of me eventually," she said, not even bothering to look at him as she finished the potion. "I think I've proven that I'm capable."

"It's not that you're not capable," he said. "But this job is always easier, and safer, when you have someone with you. Ask your mom. She'll tell you that it didn't matter how much experience they had. Going off by themselves was never a smart thing."

She shrugged. "You guys do it all the time."

"No, we don't."

Wyatt cursed his luck when Chris chose that opportune moment to orb into the attic, announcing, "So I was just in the Underworld…"

Allison gave Wyatt a knowing look, which Wyatt avoided as he responded, "Well, we don't do it _all _the time."

"What'd I miss?" Chris asked, a confused look on his face.

"Nothing," Wyatt said. "What'd you find in the Underworld?"

"A possible lead on Traya," he said.

"Traya?" Wyatt asked. "She's dead."

"But her plans aren't," Chris argued. "With how many demons she had working under her, you gotta think that there's someone out there that wants to finish what she started. Namely her son."

"Oh please," Wyatt said. "He's only twelve. What's he gonna do?"

"You don't have to be old to command demons. And if he's her flesh and blood, I'm willing to bet that these demons would listen to him. Not to mention, he's half witch, half demon. That's a lot of power for a twelve-year-old."

"Maybe." Wyatt shrugged. "That's all I'll say."

"I thought we weren't supposed to underestimate our enemies," Allison said. "That we should always assume the worst."

"I didn't say always," Wyatt said. "If we always did that, we'd never sleep. Sometimes you gotta just go on good faith. And I don't think Dylan's up to anything. I think he got scared and ran off."

"Well, I think otherwise," Chris said.

"Well….good for you," Wyatt replied, struggling for a retort. "Look, it doesn't matter. We have this other demon to take care of first."

"Fine, then you guys go after your demon and I'll go after mine."

"By yourself?" Allison asked with the smallest of smiles, anxious to see how Wyatt would field this one.

"Divide and conquer, that's my motto," Chris said. He started to move across the attic, stuffing a few necessary supplies in a tattered bag he grabbed from a shelf. "I just need a few things before I go."

"Now hold it," Wyatt said. "You're not doing this by yourself."

"Why not?" Chris asked, genuinely curious.

"Because it's dangerous."

"It's always dangerous, but that's never stopped us. We always split up; that's how we work."

"Oh is it?" Allison asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Wyatt sighed, ignoring Allison for the moment and focusing on his brother. "Things are different now."

"Why?"

"Because we're not kids anymore, Chris. We have to set a good example, and going off recklessly isn't doing that."

"Who says I'm being reckless?" Chris asked.

Wyatt sighed, growing frustrated. He honestly had no argument he could use to convince Chris since he was right – they'd been going off on their own for several months now. It was nothing new for them to split up when they had two different problems to take care of.

He was more than relieved when his mother decided to walk in. "Mom, great. I need your help here."

"What's going on?" she asked warily.

"Wyatt is choosing now to be overprotective," Chris said. "I've been killing demons on my own since I was seventeen-"

"You're only eighteen now," Wyatt said, trying to show how stupid that argument was. "It's not like you have years of experience on you."

"Neither do you," Chris said.

"I'm not saying I do. You're being a baby about this."

"'Cause you're treating me like one."

Piper glanced at Allison, who was hiding a smirk. The argument seemed to be amusing her. Piper put her hands up, "All right, break it up you two." She looked each of her son's in the eyes. "Explain from the beginning."

Wyatt spoke before Chris could, "We were in the middle of going after this demon, and Chris went off looking for something else."

"I wasn't looking for anything," Chris said. "I just happened to stumble on-"

"Oh give me a break."

Chris looked at his brother wide-eyed, his arms outstretched in confusion. "What's with the hostility?"

Allison uncrossed her arms. "Don't mind him. He's just upset that you came in and disproved his point."

"What point is that?" Piper asked, trying to redirect the conversation, since she still had no idea what was going on.

"You know what, it doesn't matter," Chris said. "If I don't leave now, I'm gonna lose this demon's trail. So if you'll excuse me…"

"No, you are not excused," Wyatt said, spitefully. "You can't just bail in the middle of something."

"I'm not bailing. It's a low level demon. You and Allison can handle it."

"Actually," Piper stepped in, "Wyatt, you were supposed to be at the restaurant twenty minutes ago."

Wyatt winced. "Ohhh…" he said slowly.

"Oh is right," Piper said. "I know the business belongs to our family, but that doesn't mean you can blow it off. If you don't have time for it-"

"No, I do." Wyatt ran a hand through his short blond hair. "Not a problem. Chris, you and Allison go vanquish the demon." The frustrated look on Chris's face was palpable, but Wyatt had built up an immunity to that look over the years. He simply said in response, "Hey, the sooner you vanquish the demon, the sooner you can go after your lead."

"My lead could be gone by then."

"You've had time to stand around here," Wyatt said.

"Not by choice," Chris muttered.

"I gotta get changed," Wyatt said. He started to leave the attic, calling over his shoulder, "Don't let me down, Chris!"

Chris looked at his mother, shaking his head slowly. "I could kill him."

Piper laughed. "Don't be that way, hon. He's doing what he thinks is best."

"I've got the potion ready," Allison said, hoping to alleviate her cousin's stress. "We'll make it quick."

Chris took a breath and let it out through his nose, his jaw tense. He stepped towards Allison and reached his hand out, a glint suddenly in his eye.

"I know where I'm going," Allison said in response to the outstretched hand.

"I want to stick together," he said. Piper smiled at his seemingly cautious nature and left the attic as soon as they'd orbed away.

When Chris and Allison orbed into the Underworld, Chris readjusted his grip on the old bag he'd still been holding with the supplies he needed. He glanced at Allison, who had several vials of vanquishing potion in her hands.

"You won't be needing those," he said.

* * *

Whitney had been lying on her bed in almost darkness for nearly twenty minutes before she sat up and leaned over the end of her bed to pull the curtain back. She squinted from the sudden rush of sunlight and then sat back. There was a glass of pink lemonade on the windowsill and she reached for it, taking a long drink.

Summer had been quite boring so far for Whitney. Her mom worked all day, her sisters had been spending a lot of time at Magic School training with Leo, not to mention the evenings they went out to movies or late night shopping excursions, or on dates. Her dad was usually the only one home during the day, but even then he was in and out, dealing with his own charges as a cupid.

The front door opened and the voices of her sister met her ears. The sound moved closer as they approached her bedroom. Madeline popped her head in. "Hey Hooey, we got something for you."

Whitney ignored the nickname she used to love but was now beginning to hate as she got older. "What?"

Prue came in behind Madeline with a long, almost flat package and then Madeline came inside the room completely. Both girls sat up near the head of Whitney's bed, putting the package in the middle of all three of them.

"Who's it from?" Whitney asked, frowning at it.

"We don't know," Madeline said. "There's no return address and it was just sitting on the porch when we got home."

"Open it," Prue urged her little sister.

Whitney shrugged and pulled one end of the box towards her. She ripped the end open and reached in, pulling out the contents. It was an old, fairly antique spirit board.

"Wow," Madeline said, almost in awe, running her fingers over the dents and scratches in the wood. "This looks ancient. I wonder who sent it to you."

Prue grabbed the end of the box and turned it upside down, shaking it. A folded piece of paper fell out, and Prue took it, unfolding it. "It's blank. That's weird."

"Maybe they just forgot to write it," Madeline said. "We should totally try it out later."

"Mom wouldn't approve," Prue argued. "Besides, spirit boards aren't toys. We can't just play with it."

"Oh c'mon, it'd be so much fun," Madeline said.

"Maddy," Prue said, her tone showing her frustration. "No. I think we should call Mom at work and tell her about this. It seems fishy to me."

Madeline sighed. "All right fine."

Prue got up off the bed and headed for the door, Madeline going too. Whitney figured she might as well follow to see what her mom said about the gift, but when she got to the door, she stopped. The pointer was slowly moving towards a letter.

Whitney peered out into the hall, which had a clear visual path to the living room. Her sisters were on the couch, Prue on the phone. Whitney bit her lip and went back to the spirit board, grabbing a sticky note and a pen from her desk.

She watched the planchette move over the letters rather quickly, scribbling each one down and urging it to go faster before Prue and Madeline came back. When it finally stopped, it had left her a message that sounded remarkably like a spell:

_CHANGE THE INK SO I MIGHT SEE_

_WHAT MY FRIEND HAS WRITTEN TO ME_

Whitney frowned in confusion, straightening from the bent position she'd taken on her bed over the spirit board. But then her eyes fell on the blank sheet of paper that Prue had found. She picked it up, glancing at the spell in her hand.

Footsteps down the hall snapped her out of her momentary revelation and she shoved the blank note and the spell under the throw at the end of her bed.

"Mom says to put it in the basement until she gets home," Prue said. "She agrees that something's not right about it."

Whitney nodded. "Okay."

Prue stepped forward and grabbed the spirit board, giving her sister a smile as she left. Whitney could hear Prue and Madeline's voices again, but it faded as they walked down to the basement. When she was sure they were gone, Whitney flicked her wrist, closing her bedroom door with her telekinesis.

Pulling out both sheets of paper, she took a deep breath. "Change the ink so I might see, what my friend has written to me."

Small black markings began to etch their way onto the blank sheet of paper. When all the letters had solidified, Whitney brought the letter closer to her eyes and read, her heart pounding with every word.

A.N.: Well, here's the first chapter of the next story of my series. Let me know what you think! Reviews are always appreciated :)


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Allison sighed out of slight boredom as she followed her cousin through the dark caverns of the Underworld. Chris seemed focused enough that he knew what he was doing, but when they passed by the same rock formation for the third time, Allison felt the need to bring it up, or else walk in the same circle for all eternity.

"We've been by here already," she said.

"Shhh," he hissed. He then added in a hushed whisper, "I know that."

"Okay," she said in the same tone, "then what are we doing? I thought we were following your demon trail or whatever."

"Look, I don't know exactly when he's gonna be here, but I know he will."

"Well, can you explain to me what we're doing? Because I'm very uninformed right now, not to mention bored. How do you know that this demon is going to be here, and how do you even know that it's connected to Traya?"

Chris sighed and made a complete one eighty so he was facing her full on. He sucked in his lips for a few seconds and then said, "Okay, so this demon, he's a power seeker."

"I've never heard of those. Are they in the book?"

"No, because it's not an official demon name. It's like…slang. Basically, it's a low level demon that kisses up to the big boys, hoping that he can cash in when the big boy becomes the big man. See what I'm saying?"

"Sort of," she mumbled.

"Power seekers spend a lot of time with seers and oracles. They're trying to hunt out the next big evil threat to the world. When they find something potentially that big, they go to this possible big evil demon-"

"The big boy," she interjected.

"Right. And they say, whatever you want. I'm yours. See, they want to secure their place in the new hierarchy, once the demon takes power and becomes-"

"The big man," she said with a slight grin.

"Exactly. This demon that I'm looking for, he's been spending a lot of time around here, which just so happens is where the Seer sets up shop. Demons don't visit Seers on a regular basis. Not like this. So if he's hunting for a new threat, then I'm guessing he was connected to the former big threat. Traya."

Allison nodded. "But this is all speculation."

"Yes, but if you don't speculate, you have nothing to go on. When I first started investigating Dylan, it was all speculation. But we see how that turned out. I was right."

"Not to brag or anything," she said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes, and she added. "I see your point. My question is, if Dylan is still up to the same tricks that Traya was, then wouldn't this…power seeker be following him?"

"I don't think Dylan is in a position of power yet. I think he's waiting. Trying to figure things out. And it's possible that what this demon is going to find out from the Seer is that Dylan _is _the next threat."

"So you're hoping he leads us to Dylan," she said.

"Good guess, but no."

"All right, then what?"

"We need to know what he knows about Traya's plans. I'd rather know what the plan is then to have the leader of the plan."

"Really?"

Chris shrugged. "We killed Traya, the supposed leader of the plan, but if I'm right, it's still going on. The chain of command may never end. We need to know what we're up against and what they're planning."

"Okay. So how long are we going to wait here for him to show up?"

"As long as it takes," he said simply.

"All right, but I have to be home, you know, at some point."

"You can leave whenever you have to go. Although I'm surprised. Lately you haven't exactly been one for rules."

"Things are just…different now," she said. "With my parents."

"Right. Melinda said…well, she told us how they've been fighting."

"There's enough stress in my house already. I don't need to cause trouble for something so stupid." She paused. "What about the other demon? The one we were originally going after?"

Chris sighed. "That demon will still be there tomorrow. This might not be. He might get his answer today and be untraceable."

"Somebody could die," she said softly. "Wyatt would never forgive us, and I don't think I could forgive myself."

"What do you want me to do?" he asked. "I can't leave here."

"Let me go then."

Chris sighed. "Allison…"

"I know. But it's the best solution."

"Wyatt-"

"Doesn't have to know. Maybe I've never done it alone, but I might as well have. You guys have never had to jump in front of me. I've stood by you, practically an equal. You know I'm ready."

"It's not my decision. He's your white lighter."

"So? I know exactly what I'm doing. It's a quick vanquish. If I end up in trouble, I can call for help." She noticed his hesitation and added, "It's been almost an hour. I'm not helping by just sitting here. I could be doing something else."

"I'm probably gonna regret this…" Chris noticed how her face was already lighting up. "Okay, okay. You can go, but the second, and I mean the second that you're done-"

"Come back and tell you."

"Right, and then get your ass back home. You understand?"

"One hundred percent." She smiled. "I'll see you in like ten minutes. Tops." The grin was still on her face as she orbed.

* * *

Whitney was in bed, but she wasn't sleeping. She'd rolled around her squeaky mattress for almost an hour, looking at her clock, watching the way the moonlight moved across the window at the end of her bed. With a frustrated sigh, she reached over and turned her lamp on, sitting up.

Rubbing her eyes from the sudden invasion of light, she wrapped her fingers around the drawer handle of her nightstand and pulled it open. The letter was sitting inside. She unfolded it and read it again, resting her chin in her hand, her elbow on her folded thighs.

Dylan didn't say where he was, but he told her he couldn't see her until he knew he could trust her family. He said that he knew he could count on her and that she wouldn't believe what everyone was telling her. And he said that in time they could be friends again.

The letter wasn't long, but it was long enough. It wasn't as though they'd been best, best friends, but she missed hanging out with him. When she had premonitions that scared her, she always preferred talking to Dylan, because he didn't get upset and worried like her mom did. But things had definitely changed near the end of the school year. He wasn't around as much, and he acted more serious around her, as if he had a heavy load on his shoulders. She suspected that he hadn't always known his mother was a demon. She wondered how recently he had discovered it.

There was a soft knock at the door and Whitney quickly crumbled up the letter, shoving it into the drawer and closing it, just as her bedroom door opened. Her mother peeked her head in.

"You still up baby? I thought you went to sleep."

"I was just reading a little," she said. "I was about to turn the light off."

Phoebe nodded. She regarded her youngest for a few seconds. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"

Whitney shrugged. "No."

"You were really quiet at dinner." Phoebe pushed the door open further, coming into the room. "Actually, it hasn't just been tonight."

Whitney couldn't bring herself to look at her mom. "I'm all right," she said softly.

With a sigh, Phoebe sat on the end of the bed, her fingers resting on Whitney's leg through the light green and yellow flowers on her bedspread. "I know all this has been hard on you."

"All what?"

"You know what," Phoebe said with a knowing look. "After everything that happened to your friend-"

"His name is Dylan."

"All right," Phoebe said gently, immediately sensing her daughter's annoyance. "Sweetie, I understand what you're going through."

"Because of Cole," Whitney said.

Phoebe was startled. "How do you know about Cole?"

"Maddy told me."

"How does Madeline know?" Phoebe said in a stern tone.

"I think Wyatt and Chris told her."

"Wyatt and-" Phoebe stopped with a groan, putting the heel of her hand on her forehead. She took a breath and looked up at her daughter. "Well if you know about Cole, then you know how much evil, even a little bit, can affect you."

"But you still fell in love with Cole. You found the good in him."

"The pain I went through…I don't want you to ever experience that."

"I'm already experiencing it," Whitney muttered.

Phoebe fought back a smile. She knew better than to insist that her daughter's friendship with this boy wasn't as strong and intimate as Phoebe's relationship had been with Cole.

"I guess I know how you feel about Dylan now," Whitney said. "You don't trust him either. No one does."

"He was behind your kidnapping," Phoebe said.

"He wasn't!" Whitney said. "He was trying to help me. While I was down there, a bunch of demons attacked and he protected me."

Phoebe processed the earnestness on Whitney's face. She saw how desperate she was for her mother to believe her and trust Dylan. The boy had disappeared almost two months ago without a trace. The fact that Whitney's mind was still centered on him concerned her.

"Do you know where Dylan is?"

Whitney seemed thrown by the suddenness of the question. "No. Why would I?"

"I'm just checking."

"Even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you. You'd probably get Wyatt and Chris to kill him."

"Whitney," Phoebe said firmly.

"You all think he's evil and nothing is going to change your mind. Well, I know different and I'll protect him."

"If you know where he is-"

"I don't!" she practically yelled. "Just leave me alone." She scooted down in her bed, acting as though she were going to go to sleep. She turned her face to the wall and waited for the mattress to dip. The door closed and Whitney was alone.

* * *

When Allison orbed back home, she felt like she was on cloud nine. The demon vanquish had gone flawless. She'd orbed in, caught the demon's attention, offered him a classic Paige Matthews one-liner, and threw the vial, vanquishing him in a cloud of smoke.

Chris had seemed indifferent when she told him how well it had gone, but it made her even prouder that he almost acted as though he'd expected her to succeed. Now that she was home, she had the sudden urge to do more.

Allison heard her mom in the kitchen and she started towards there with every intention of asking if she could go back and join Chris on his stakeout, but she stopped at the end of the hall, just outside the kitchen.

"You act like you're doing what's best for our children, but you don't even-" Henry Sr.'s voice was drowned out by Paige talking over him.

"I _do _know what's best for our children! You knew I was a witch when you married me, and you knew our children would be too."

"We discussed this when you were pregnant with the twins. You said that we would _both_ have a say-"

"You're the one trying to monopolize the decision. I'm trying to work with you, but you're not cooperating. You can't just ignore-"

"I wanted to bind their powers, but you said no. The least you could do is keep them out of this demon fight until they're older."

"It's not my decision, Henry. Destiny has made them the new Power of Three. Demons are going to target them for the rest of their lives. We're doing our best to get them ready, but you fighting me isn't helping."

"That's another thing. The Power of _Three_?"

"I know it doesn't make sense to you, but it's the way it is. The nine of them are a collective power. No, they aren't all needed to form the Power of Three, but losing one of them will weaken them."

Henry rolled his eyes. "You know, I am so tired of hearing you spout off these asinine statements that are so full of shit-"

"Henry!" Paige yelled, trying to interrupt his tirade. "You want to bind their powers? It won't matter. All it will do is make them vulnerable. You think demons are going to care that they can't find back? They're the Charmed Ones." She paused. "And in case you didn't hear me the first hundred times, they will always have a target on their back. The best thing we can do is protect them now and prepare them to protect themselves later."

Allison didn't want to listen to anymore. It was the same fight over and over, and her dad still wouldn't listen to reason. Going back down the hall, Allison pushed her bedroom door open. The lamp in the corner was on and Jessica was stretched out on the chaise lounge, reading a book.

"Hey," Allison said.

"Hey." Jessica didn't even look up.

Allison slid on the edge of her own bed, facing Jessica. "How was your day?"

"Fine," she said in a monotone.

"What's wrong?"

Jessica sighed, slamming her book shut. "I'm just frustrated, okay? I'm frustrated that you're so good at this and I can't get it. I know it's wrong to take it out on you, but I don't care. That's how I feel."

"Oh." Allison hadn't seen that coming. Sure, Jessica had been kind of quiet the last week or so, but it wasn't like that was completely out of character for her. She'd always been pretty reserved. "You know Jess, it's not like I just randomly decided to be a witch. I've been working at this my whole life."

"I know," Jessica said.

"You want me to help you?"

"No." Jessica sucked in a breath and let her shoulders slump. "Yes. I just can't get my aim right. I try to TK something somewhere and I always miss my target. No matter how hard I concentrate."

"That's probably your problem. You need to relax. Here," Allison paused, getting off the bed and walking to their dresser. She opened the top drawer and pulled out a rolled up pair of socks. She put it on Jessica's bed. "Now just close your eyes."

"I can't do it with my eyes closed," Jessica said.

"Would you just go with i?"

Jessica sighed and closed her eyes.

"Not so tight. Your eyelids are too wrinkled." Allison stepped over and put her hands on her sister's shoulders. "Loosen up a little."

"I am loose!"

"You're not loose if you're snapping at me." Allison stepped back, satisfied. "Okay, now take a deep breath." She nodded as Jessica obliged. "Now just imagine the socks moving from your bed to the blue circle on my bedspread."

"What are you doing?" a deep voice cut in and both girls turned to the doorway where their brother was leaning.

"You interrupted our flow," Allison said.

"What flow? What is this?" Henry Jr. asked.

"Allison's helping me with my telekinesis," Jessica explained.

Henry walked further in the room. "I thought you were mad at her, now you're asking for her help?"

"I offered," Allison said. "What is your problem?"

"One of you is enough. You were the only one that used to care about this stuff, and now you've sucked in Jess too."

"I have a mind of my own, Henry," Jessica objected. "Besides, I always cared about my powers. I just never had a reason to get better before. Now I do."

"And so do you," Allison said.

"My powers are fine, thank you," Henry said. "And it's not like you're much of a teacher anyway. You're still in training, just like us."

"But she gets to face actual demons," Jessica said. "Not a simulation of one."

"And," Allison paused, putting on the proud face, "As of today, I'd like to consider myself _out _of training."

"Why is that?" Henry asked.

"Because I faced my first demon all by myself. And I won."

"By yourself? I can't believe Mom gave you permission," Henry said.

"It's not her place to give me permission," Allison said. "She's not my white lighter."

"So Wyatt gave you permission," Henry said.

Allison hesitated. Maybe she should have thought it through before she'd started running her mouth. "Yeah. Of course." Desperately wanting to change the subject, she said, "Now we were in the middle of something so please go."

Henry slid his eyes from one sister to another, but agreed, stepping out into the hall to silence. It sounded like his parents had stopped fighting. For the moment at least.

* * *

When Wyatt got home, he kicked his shoes off and immediately started unbuttoning his shirt, revealing a plain white t-shirt underneath. As he slid the outer shirt off his shoulders, he walked towards the stairs and went to toss the shirt on the back of the couch in the sitting room.

"Don't even think about it." Piper walked into the dining room, just in time to see what he was going to do. "Take your dirty clothes up to your room."

"All right. Sorry. I just had a long night. I think your manager hates me."

"Taylor doesn't hate you."

"Yeah, he does. If you weren't his boss, he'd fire me."

"We need to talk," Piper said, suddenly serious. She walked around the couch to sit down and Wyatt's shoulders slumped as he followed.

"Well, that's never good," he said. He settled next to her, rubbing at a sore spot on his neck. "What's up?"

"Paige just called. Did you tell Allison that she could go vanquish a demon on her own?"

"_What?_ God, no. Mom, you were there. I told Chris to go with her."

"She apparently told Henry Jr. that you told her she could go."

"I didn't. Is she okay?"

"She's fine. But that doesn't justify her doing this. She's still too young and too inexperienced."

"You're preaching to the choir," Wyatt objected. "I did not give her permission." And with a deep scowl, Wyatt realized exactly what had happened. "Chris!" he yelled. He waited. His brother didn't orb in, didn't walk down the stairs. Nothing. "Chris!"

"He wouldn't do that," Piper said.

"Oh, but I would?" Wyatt asked. "CHRIS!"

"They left together," Piper said. "I saw them. He even insisted they orb together so he wouldn't lose track of her."

"He doesn't care that she's inexperienced. He loves having the extra pair of hands. It would not surprise me if he sent her to vanquish the demon so he could follow up on his lead." When Chris still hadn't shown up, Wyatt threw up his hands. "All right, I'm going to him then."

"If he did let her do this, you make sure he understands how not good this is," Piper said. "If he doesn't, you tell me. I'll set him straight."

"Okay Mom."

"Paige and Henry are having enough trouble working this out as it is. She really did not need Henry to use this as extra ammunition."

"I know," Wyatt said, slightly annoyed. "We'll be right back."

Wyatt used his sixth sense to zero in on his brother and orbed immediately. Once he was saw that Chris was safe and healthy, he decided that he was furious. "So you're just sitting here?" Wyatt asked.

Chris sighed and used the edge of the wall he was leaning against to stand up. "I'm waiting. What are you doing here?"

"Well, since you weren't responding to my calls…"

"I'm sorry. But this is important."

"This about your lead then?" Wyatt asked and Chris nodded. Wyatt continued, "So you vanquished the other demon then?"

"It's been taken care of."

Wyatt was silent for a few seconds, waiting to see if he would confess. But all Chris did was read Wyatt's expression and say, "What?"

"I know that you sent Allison to vanquish the demon by herself."

"I didn't send her."

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying!"

"But you knew that she went to do it on her own. I told you to vanquish that demon first, and I told you to do it together, but you just did the absolute opposite."

"And why do I have to do what you say Wyatt? Since when are you the boss? This used to be a partnership. And the Wyatt I know would have believed in Allison. He would have recognized that she's ready. He wouldn't be micromanaging both her and me."

"Somebody has to be responsible here, Chris."

"I'm not talking about being responsible. If you had just acknowledged that this lead is more important than some stupid low level demon, we wouldn't be here right now."

"Well, what difference does it make what I say? You just do what you want anyway."

"The only reason Allison wanted to go was because we promised you we'd vanquish the demon. I made the call that this was more pressing and decided to do this instead, but she was the one that felt like the other demon needed our attention. So I let her take care of it."

"It's not that simple, Chris! Her parents are mad at _me_ now. She could have gotten killed and then what?"

"What if I had gotten killed?"

"What?"

"Would Mom and Dad not be upset if I got killed?"

"What is your point?"

"My point is it's the same thing. They're going to be upset no matter how old she is. If their daughter's dead, she's dead."

Wyatt's face tensed and he suddenly took in where they were. "I'm not having this conversation here." He grabbed Chris's arm and orbed them back to the manor, in Wyatt's room. Chris wrenched his arm from Chris's grasp and went straight for the door.

"Don't leave," Wyatt said. "We need to figure this out."

"We're not going to agree."

"I know we aren't. But if you and me are going to be partners in this, then we need to figure out a system." Wyatt paused, waiting for Chris to pull out Wyatt's desk chair to sit. "She's fifteen. She's still a kid."

"I know."

"Okay. Then you know that her parents are still in charge of what she does. If they don't want her fighting demons by herself, then we don't let that happen. Do you get that?"

"So is that how it's gonna be? 'Cause you know Uncle Henry will never let that happen."

"It's not our problem."

Chris sighed. "I won't let it happen again."

"Thank you."

"But I was still right about blowing off the other demon. We don't know what Traya was planning, and I had a shot at figuring it out."

"I'm not convinced that there was any major plan."

"Well, that's what makes you, you, and me, me. I like to be thorough. And I'm usually right. You have to admit."

"So you're thorough and I'm careless, is that it?"

"No," Chris said. "It's more I'm the brain and you're the brawn."

Wyatt grinned and threw a pillow at Chris. "Well, they don't call me the Twice Blessed for nothing."

Chris's own smile faltered slightly. "Yeah. Twice Blessed."

"What?"

"It's just…" Chris sighed. "You're still using them."

"Using what?"

"Your Twice Blessed powers."

"Oh geez, Chris. It's not like I'm on drugs or anything. It makes things easier."

"Yeah, but before you said you were only using them to save Whitney. Now you use them all the time, for all demons. I don't want you to rely on them."

"Why not?" Wyatt paused. "You know, I don't even know if I understand what you mean when you say my 'Twice Blessed' powers. What powers are you even talking about?"

"You know which ones I mean. You vanquish demons with a wave of your hand. And then the energy balls."

"Is that it?"

"Well, it's a lot when you use them all the time. You've got like five other powers. Is it that much to ask that you don't use those two?"

"I just don't get what the big deal is."

"I know you don't." Chris paused. "It's not like I understand it either. I just get this…feeling in my stomach. I don't like seeing you that way. You know, with that much power."

"So this is about _how much_ power I have. Not what kind."

"No…well kind of. I don't know."

"Well, I can't say I understand your weird feeling, but if it's really bothering you this much, then I guess I can stop using them."

"Thanks."

"No problem bro." Wyatt stood up and slapped Chris's back. "But uh…could you maybe do me a favor in exchange?"

"What?"

"Call Aunt Paige and tell her that you were the one that told Allison she could go."

Chris groaned, but knew it was his responsibility. With Wyatt pushing on his back, he left to go make what he knew would be a dreadful phone call.

A.N. Thanks for the reviews! They really made my day. Things will hopefully start to heat up in the next chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, concepts, or plot arcs of Charmed.

Chapter Three

The screen door was open in the kitchen of Coop and Phoebe's home, allowing some fresh air to blow through the kitchen and dining area. Prue was sitting with one of her classmates at the dining room table; both of them had spiral notebooks open in front of them with pencils in hand. Part of the application process for being on the school paper involved writing an article with a fellow applicant. Prue had teamed up with another junior in her class.

"So what was your idea?" Prue asked.

Ryan cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Well, I ride my bike downtown a lot, to visit my sister, and the last few times I've went there's been this guy on the sidewalk near her apartment. I think he's homeless."

Prue frowned, thinking about how awful it must be for people in that situation.

Ryan continued, "First of all, I think it's a great human interest story. Second, it brings attention to the plight of the homeless. And third, we could propose a fundraiser to help the homeless. What do you think?"

Prue nodded. "It's a good idea. Don't you think it's a little too…I don't know…above our qualifications?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's just a big story, you know? We won't be writing stuff like that when we're actually on the paper. It'll all be school related."

"A fundraiser would be school related. We could bring in the student council on it. I think it would make us stand out."

Prue considered it a moment. "Okay." She smiled. "I think it's a great idea."

"Cool. I can do the interview and then you can write it." He added quickly, "If that's okay. I just really need to work on my interview skills."

"Yeah, that's fine."

"All right, I better go. I'm glad we got this worked out." Ryan gave her a smile and slid his notebook back into his backpack. Prue got up with him, walking him to the door.

After he'd left, Prue turned around just in time to see her mom coming up from the basement. Prue asked, "Still nothing suspicious with the spirit board?"

"I can't understand it," Phoebe said. "Who would send it to her?"

"Well…" Prue started, shrugging her shoulders in a knowing gesture.

"Oh don't say it." Phoebe went to the couch. She leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees. Prue sighed and moved closer, sliding onto the arm of the couch.

"Evil's never targeted Whitney before. Not until now, and we don't know where Dylan is. Maybe he sent it to her to get her a message," Prue said.

"I know sweetie. I haven't stopped thinking about him since he disappeared. He had bad intentions to begin with, his mom was killed, and Whitney still trusts him. If she's had contact with him, she'd never tell us."

Prue hated seeing her mom so stressed, and she felt like she'd brought it on herself. She should have taken the spirit board to Wyatt instead, but it was hard to remember that her mom and her aunts were no longer the Charmed Ones.

"Maybe it wasn't evil at all," Prue said, trying to ease the worry. "Maybe someone we know sent it to her as a gift."

Phoebe gave her oldest daughter a small smile and reached out, tucking Prue's long brown hair behind her ear. "We don't need to talk about this right now. How's your article going?"

"We just settled on an idea today so it's going okay so far."

"Well, you know I'd be happy to look over it when you've got a draft done."

"I know," Prue said awkwardly. She didn't want to tell her mom just then that she had no plans of letting her read anything. She glanced at the clock, realizing she had a perfect exit. "I've gotta get to Magic School. Did Maddy already leave?"

Phoebe nodded. "About ten minutes ago."

Prue got up and went to find her shoes.

* * *

Chris was in the kitchen making himself some lunch when he heard the sound of orbs coming from the living room. A few seconds later, Allison came in, swinging her arms and sighing heavily. "Hey," she greeted in a somber tone.

Chris smirked. "I'm surprised you're even allowed out of the house after what happened."

"Well, my mom was pissed and said I was grounded, and my dad was relieved I was okay and blamed my mom for the whole thing. He wasn't angry with me at all."

"If you're grounded, what are you doing here?"

Allison shrugged. "I don't think it should stick if your parents disagree on the punishment." She slid up on one of the barstools and let out another deep sigh. "I still can't believe Henry told on me. He always used to stay out of this stuff."

"Lesson One: If you're going to break the rules, don't go running your mouth off about it," Chris said. "I got in trouble too, you know."

"I'm sorry. I honestly didn't think he would tell. Him and Jess never agreed with the way I do things, but they never ran to Mom and Dad about it. I thought it was safe talking to them. Besides…it did kind of slip out."

"You need to be more careful."

"Forget about that. Tell me what happened last night. Did the demon come?"

"No. And I would have stayed longer, but Wyatt forced me home when he found out what you did."

"What _we _did," Allison said. "You agreed that it was better that I go."

"Yeah, but it was stupid, and I regret it."

"Are you going back to the Underworld?"

"Soon as I'm done eating," he said. "I've been following this demon all week, and I'm not letting go of this until I know I'm wrong."

"If you've been following him all week, how come you haven't caught him before?" Allison asked.

"Because I haven't seen him consult the Seer yet."

"Then how do you know-"

"He just seems like the type. He's like a social butterfly in the Underworld. Constantly clinging to other demons to protect him. I told you this was a hunch, didn't I?"

"I guess. I just wish we knew for sure before we wasted our afternoon waiting on him."

"We?" Chris laughed. "No, no, no. There is no we. I am not doing that again."

"Doing what? I'd be going with you, meaning I wouldn't be alone like I was yesterday. That is still within the rules."

"Yeah, but you really need to lay low on the demon front for a while. Gain some trust back with your parents."

"Oh c'mon. You can't say that you don't want me there. I'm sure you were bored out of your mind yesterday, just sitting there and waiting. I could keep you company, _and _I'd be there to watch your back. Technically, you're not supposed to hunt demons by yourself either."

"Dumbest rule ever. I've worked alone tons of times."

"Don't fight me on this," Allison said. "I have provided you with more than enough justification. Just let me come. If all goes as planned, no one has to know."

"Yeah. I've heard that before."

"Oh trust me. I won't be breathing a word of it this time." She grinned, suddenly excited again. Capturing a demon and interrogating him was something she'd never done before, and the possibility of this new experience had her ecstatic. "You finish eating. I'll go upstairs and get our stuff."

Chris smiled as she left. He knew he wasn't being the most responsible here, but it was hard not to sympathize with her. He'd been just like her a few short years ago. He and Wyatt had always gone on secret missions into the Underworld. They'd get reamed afterwards, but the thrill was always worth it. And the only reason they'd been caught yesterday was because Allison hadn't been careful about who she told, and that certainly wouldn't happen again.

But Chris had no idea that this time Allison would have no choice.

* * *

Whitney waited until the house was empty. Her sisters had left for Magic School about an hour ago, and her mom said something about running to the store. Her dad was the last to leave, getting called upon to help a man who'd lost his girlfriend six months ago to move on.

She found the slip of paper where she'd written Dylan's phone number a long time ago. Sitting on the couch, she took a deep breath and removed the phone from its dock, pressing the button that caused the dial tone to spring to life, sounding like a flat line.

With slightly shaking fingers, she dialed the number and listened to it ring. A woman picked up.

"Hi," Whitney said hesitantly. "Is this Sandra Thompson?"

"Yes. Who is this?"

Whitney cleared her throat. "My name's Whitney. I'm one of Dylan's friends."

There was a long moment of silence, and Whitney felt her heart thudding in her chest. When it seemed like Mrs. Thompson was too emotional for words, Whitney continued. "I just thought you should know that Dylan's okay. He just contacted me."

This was a sharp intake of breath on the other line. And then a shaky, "Thank you."

"I don't know what Leo told you about what Dylan did, but I still think he's a good person."

"We raised him since he was a baby," Mrs. Thompson said. "To think that he could…he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And now he's too afraid to come home."

"My family doesn't trust him, but I'm working on that." She paused, and then asked, genuinely curious. "Have you spoken to him at all?"

There was another bout of silence, as if the woman was trying to decide if she could trust Whitney with this information. Then she finally said, "About a month and a half ago. There was a letter taped to our door. He didn't say much, just that he was okay. That he loves us."

Whitney frowned sadly. She remembered shortly after the whole mess had happened, Leo had said that his father suspected him of killing their son and that the Halliwells were trying to cover it by saying he was a demon. It seemed like Dylan's mother was more rational, but her grief had still been evident.

The police had been brought in early on to help find a missing boy named Dylan Thompson, but Dylan didn't want to be found. It'd taken some time for their family to be cleared of involvement in Dylan's disappearance. Whitney wondered if Dylan's dad still suspected them.

"Dylan can take care of himself," Whitney said, hoping that would provide some comfort. "He protected me from a lot of demons. I don't think anyone can hurt him."

"If you hear from him again," she started.

"I'll tell you as soon as I do. But, with my family the way it is, it took him a lot to get me this one message. I don't think Dylan's is going to come out until he knows it's safe."

Whitney offered the woman a few more words of encouragement. When she hung up, she grabbed his phone number in her fist and got up, turning to go back to her room. And that's when her heart fell to her stomach.

Standing in the doorway leading to the hall was her sister, a shocked, almost frightened, look on her face.

"Madeline," Whitney said, her voice catching in her throat from being startled. "I didn't know you were there."

It took Madeline a moment to recover from her own surprise. She ran a hand through her short, curly hair, a nervous gesture she often did. "Tell me I misunderstood what you just said."

Whitney wanted to be furious that her sister hadn't made her presence known the second she arrived, but she knew that anger would never get anyone on her side. She sighed, having no idea how to handle this.

* * *

After almost an hour of waiting, Allison made a suggestion. "What if we went back to following him again? Like you were doing earlier this week?"

"Because I don't think my theory can be proven unless we find him here."

"But why does it have to be proven? Can we just grab the demon and force him to talk?"

"Because I need to have one more piece of evidence that he knows something. If I don't, then I won't know how far to go with the interrogation. I don't want to end up vanquishing him just because he's not talking and I don't _think _he knows anything. I need to be sure."

"Makes no sense to me, but I guess you're the boss." She frowned. "Could we go talk to the Seer?"

Chris shook his head. "We don't talk to Seers."

"She probably knows we're here anyway. We've been skulking outside her lair for like an hour, not to mention your sit-in last night."

"We're a safe distance away, but I'm close enough that I can sense when this demon shows up. I've been following him enough that I can get an accurate read on his position."

"Okay," Allison said, her voice full of doubt.

Chris rolled his eyes. "Fine. What do you think we should do?"

"I don't know, but this isn't getting us anywhere. It seems like a long shot, and we're like sitting ducks here."

"You have to be patient. You can't expect instant gratification. What we're doing is difficult. We have to hunt this stuff down; it can't just fall into our laps," Chris attempted to explain. Even now that Allison was allowed to fight demons, she still seemed eager to decimate every demon in the Underworld just because she could.

"This is stealthy work," Chris said. "It isn't always about action."

"I know."

"Melinda told me everything you and her did to figure out who Dylan really is. That took some serious smarts and probably a bit of patience. I know you've got it in you."

Allison smiled. "Well thanks. You know, you're a better white lighter than Wyatt."

"No. Don't even…" Chris sighed. "Wyatt is a great white lighter. He cares about you, and he doesn't want you to ever feel overwhelmed by a situation. He's trying to be cautious."

"Yeah, but that's not him. He's never been this…uptight."

"He's not uptight. And yeah, maybe he's changed a little in the last few months, but you gotta understand the position he's in. Before, it was just me and him messing around with stuff. Now that we're the Chamed Ones, it's like…the whole responsibility level has just been lifted so far we can't even see it anymore. If we die, evil wins. We're not just putting our own lives at stake anymore. We have to protect _everyone_." Chris sighed. "And that means being smart. And careful."

"Is that him talking or you?"

"Me," Chris said firmly. "Now cut him some slack."

Allison nodded, putting her head down. Chris took a deep breath, hoping that he'd made his point well enough. He didn't exactly agree with Wyatt's over-protectiveness, but he understood it. And it was time he started respecting Wyatt as his older brother instead of challenging him.

Allison pushed herself away from the rock wall suddenly. "I need to walk around. I'm getting stiff." She pulled her long loose ponytail out so she could redo it, tying her blonde hair back much tighter.

"Okay. You've got about a five foot walking path," he said with a small smirk.

Allison rolled her eyes. "I can't at least have six feet?" Her smile disappeared when two demons shimmered into place further down the cavern past Chris.

"Chris," Allison called.

Chris stepped away from the wall, in front of Allison, putting him in full view of both demons, one of which was the one he'd been following. Before either of them could react, one of the demons raised a crossbow. The arrow shot from it within milliseconds, striking Chris right in the stomach. He wasn't a demon. He was a dark lighter.

Immediately Chris braced his arm on the wall to keep from falling and said in a strained, urgent tone to Allison, "Orb us back."

But the demon jerked his head and tossed her backwards into the nearest wall. She struck her head and landed hard on the ground, her whole body pulsing with pain and her head spinning. Her vision was going black, and the last thing she could perceive was Chris dropping to the cold, hard floor, the dark lighter arrow sticking out of his stomach.


	4. Chapter 4

A.N.: Sorry this took so long. I actually did a whole rewrite of the chapter, which I think you'll thank me for. It's way better now. Enjoy! Thanks for the reviews guys

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, concepts, or plot arcs of Charmed.

* * *

"Did he really contact you?"

Whitney considered Madeline's question, wondering if there was any way out of this. She took a deep breath and was about to respond, when Madeline interrupted, "No, don't say anything. I can already see that he did."

"It was just a letter."

Madeline shook her head. "You are clearly too young to understand this. He's a demon, and he was working with his mom to kidnap you."

"He's a good person," Whitney said slowly, repeating what she'd said to Mrs. Thompson.

"So he's charming and apparently has you wrapped around his finger. That doesn't make him a good person. You had a premonition remember? Of him using demonic powers."

"To kill demons!" Whitney said earnestly.

"He doesn't need to use demonic powers to do that. Not to mention, he's only twelve years old. Any kid that young that is spending time in the Underworld like that has something wrong with them."

Whitney didn't have a response. Fuming, she walked past Madeline, shoving her out of the way so she could get into the hall. She slammed her bedroom door.

Madeline sighed and yelled for her father.

* * *

Usually Allison had a lot of bravado when dealing with demons, but she couldn't hold back showing her fear this time. Chris was lying on the other side of the demon's lair, barely conscious, the arrow still protruding from his stomach. She'd wanted to call for Wyatt several times, but the demon had produced an energy ball, threatening her cousin's life if she so much as made a peep.

She also considered orbing, but she was very hesitant to leave Chris with these demons. Her sensing ability wasn't that good, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to find him again. Even if Wyatt could sense him instead, what if the demon and the dark lighter had cloaked the lair? Chris was dying. If they couldn't find him, he wouldn't last long. Besides, she hated the idea of leaving him defenseless. There wasn't much he could do in the condition he was in.

Now, she was trying to somehow reach out to Prue telepathically. But she knew the way Prue's telepathy worked – it was difficult for Prue to receive messages unless she was _trying _to receive them. Maybe someday her power would expand, but for now it was like Allison was trying to talk to her cousin through a brick wall.

"I know you've been following me," the demon said in Chris's direction, though Chris didn't hear. He was concentrating on keeping his breathing steady and staying calm. "You think I'm stupid?"

The demon showed his resentment of that assumption by grabbing the end of the arrow shaft and yanking it out. Chris yelled and rolled over on his side, his arms pressing into his stomach, like he could push the pain back in.

It was dark, but the lighted torches in the lair made it easy for Allison to see the blood flowing from the wound. The poison was quickly moving through Chris, but the blood loss might kill him first if he didn't get help. Allison tried harder now to get a message to Prue.

"We have a job for you Blondie," the dark lighter said, leering at Allison from where she was hunched in the corner. She tried to lock eyes with her cousin, wanting his help, but his eyes were closed. He was unconscious, a thick layer of sweat coating his face and wetting his hair.

Chris was fading fast, and it was up to her to save them now.

* * *

Prue shimmered into the parking lot of her aunt Piper's restaurant, appearing behind a tall SUV. She pushed the door open and immediately scanned the place, looking for Wyatt. She'd tried calling, but the manager, who had answered the phone, insisted that he wouldn't let Wyatt take a personal call. With frustration, her mom had sent her to the restaurant to fill Wyatt in herself.

It hadn't taken Madeline long to tell her family about Whitney's contact with Dylan. When Prue had left, her parents had locked themselves in Whitney's room with her for a long talk.

The door to the kitchen swung open and Prue spotted Wyatt coming out with a large tray of food elevated in his hand. She immediately started weaving through the tables and chairs until she caught his attention.

"Hey Prue, what are you doing here?" he asked her as he stopped at a table and began to distribute the food.

"I need to talk to you," she said softly. He seemed to sense the seriousness in her tone and nodded.

"Okay, just a minute." He finished the table he was on and said he was going to go tell the kitchen staff he was taking his break. Prue made her way towards the front of the restaurant again so she was out of the way. When Wyatt found her, he looked very concerned. "What's going on?"

"It's not a huge deal," Prue said. "But my mom wanted you to know right away." She paused. "Dylan contacted Whitney."

Wyatt's head jutted forward in shock. "Are you serious? How? Did they meet somewhere?"

"No, it was a letter. I don't know exactly how she got it yet, but I think it has something to do with a spirit board."

"A spirit board?"

"Yesterday, there was a package for Whitney. It was a spirit board that didn't have a card or anything attached to it."

"Okay the how isn't important, what did he say?"

"I don't know. My parents are talking to her now. Mom thought you should know since you guys were on the lookout for him."

"Well, that was more Chris than me. Speaking of, why didn't you just call him? There's not much I can really do right now," he said, gesturing to the restaurant.

"I don't know where he is and he wasn't answering my calls."

Wyatt took a moment and then said, "He's in the Underworld." He then muttered, "Where else would he be?" With a sigh, he added, "All right. Just stay with Whitney and once you have more, come and let us know."

Prue nodded and said goodbye, heading back out to the parking lot. She shimmered back to her house, a pink heart sparkling on her chest to signify her arrival. She looked towards Whitney's bedroom, still seeing the door closed. Madeline was sitting on the couch, the television on in front of her.

"You're watching TV?" Prue asked.

"There's nothing else to do," Madeline said. "They've been in there a long time. I don't know what's going on. Did you find Wyatt?"

"Yeah. He said to just keep him updated. I can't believe Whitney would do this."

"Well, it doesn't help that I gave her a perfect example of how it was okay," Madeline said, feeling her own guilt like a knife through her stomach.

"What are you talking about?"

"I told her about Cole."

Prue let out a reluctant sigh. "Maddy…"

"I know! You don't need to tell me. How was I supposed to know that she'd meet a demon and fall in love?"

"Love? She's only eleven."

"I'm sure she thinks she's in love," Madeline said. "And I'm sure she won't listen to Mom because in a sense, Mom did the exact same thing."

"But if anything, shouldn't Cole be proof that it doesn't work out? If it had, Cole would be our father," Prue said.

"It doesn't matter. Mom supported him all the way to the end. She almost always sided with him. I think it would take Dylan trying to hurt one of us to convince her."

"Well, I don't want it to get that far," Prue said.

"No one does. But I bet that's what Mom and Dad are talking to her about. Well, Dad anyway. He's probably trying to scare her away from Dylan."

Prue nodded. With a deep sigh, she headed for the kitchen to get something to drink. Madeline relaxed back into the sofa, closing her eyes. The whole situation was beginning to stress her out. It'd be so much easier if Whitney would just accept that Dylan was evil and move on. She'd been terrified of him at first, right after her premonition. But then he'd worked his charm on her and now she was protecting him.

The stress was making her thirsty too. She followed Prue to the kitchen. "You know what I don't understand?" Madeline asked as she pulled a glass down from the cupboard.

"What?" Prue had sat down at the table in the adjacent dining room with a soda.

"Why the big production over sending her the spirit board? Why not just mail her the letter?" Madeline flipped sink faucet, filling her glass with water.

"Becaue with mail, there'd be no guarantee that one of us wouldn't intercept it. I mean, we're girls. We have no respect for each other's privacy," Prue explained.

"Well, that's…" Madeline struggled to voice her offense. "That's entirely not true."

"Not for me, but you're kind of a different story."

"What's that supposed to mean? I always respect your privacy."

"You have no reason to invade mine. I tell you everything anyway. But with other people…eh, it's sometimes true."

Madeline put her glass down on the countertop and crossed her arms. She wanted to say something mean, but it wasn't worth the effort. "Well, fine, but it still seems like a really complicated plan just to get her a letter."

Prue shrugged, about to reply, but they heard a door opening and made the reasonable assumption that Whitney and their parents were finally coming out. Madeline saw Whitney approaching from the living room and side stepped into the dining room to stand next to Prue.

When Whitney came in, the look in her eyes was like daggers. And Madeline knew they were directed at her. She cleared her throat. "Everything okay?"

Whitney continued to glare, her flat nose scrunched up in a scowl.

"I don't think she's talking to you," Prue said, matter-of-factly.

"Oh," Madeline said. "Well, then I'm not talking to you either."

There was a moment of silence and Prue looked back and forth between her two sisters. Madeline suddenly grabbed a pen off the table and a post-it from the message board on the fridge. She scribbled a message on it and held it out to Whitney. The youngest sister merely stared at it, the same angry look on her face.

Madeline shook it the note, her eyes insisting that she take it. Whitney's jaw tightened and she snatched it from her hand. She read it, crumpled it up and threw it on the floor. She held her hand out for the pen and whipped her own post-it off the fridge.

However, as soon as she took the pen in her hand, she gasped, her vision clouding over as a new scene took its place. She saw a dark sewer, a woman burning alive, a young man screaming, and a dark skinned demon turning to water and pooling on the floor.

When Whitney came out of it, she was gasping. Somehow she'd ended up on the floor. Madeline and Prue were holding her hands. Prue unclasped her hand and put it on Whitney's shaking shoulder. "You okay Hooey?"

Whitney nodded, still breathing quickly.

"Mom!" Madeline yelled.

"What'd you see?" Prue asked.

Whitney eyed the pen that was on the floor now; the one that had triggered her premonition. "Whose pen is that?"

Both girls turned their heads to look at it. Madeline shrugged. "It was on the table."

Prue frowned. "It might belong to Ryan, that guy from my school." She then added, dreading the answer, "Why?"

Phoebe and Coop came into the kitchen and immediately went into worried parent mode when they saw Whitney on the floor. Phoebe bent down and said, "Baby are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Mom," Whitney said.

"She had a premonition," Madeline explained.

"What did you see?" Prue demanded. "Was it Ryan? Really tall, dark hair?"

"I don't know. Maybe. I definitely saw a demon. I saw fire, and the demon turned into a puddle of water."

"A puddle of water? Like Wizard of Oz style?" Madeline saw Whitney's blank look. "You know, 'I'm melting, I'm melting?'"

"I guess?" Whitney asked, though she clearly didn't know the reference. "The puddle moved though, like the demon wasn't dead, just…liquid."

Phoebe nodded, her arm around Whitney, holding her close. "I remember something like that. I'm sure it's in the book."

"C'mon Maddy," Prue said, getting to her feet.

As the girls left, Phoebe called after them. "Be careful! And take someone with you!"

Phoebe wasn't sure they'd heard her as the sounds of them shimmering away met her ears. She sighed, dropping her head down into her palm.

"Maybe we should talk about this again," Coop said.

"Talk about what?" Phoebe asked without looking up.

"About binding her powers."

Both Phoebe and Whitney snapped their heads up, looking at him. Phoebe shook her head. "No, we already talked about it."

"Which is why I said 'again,'" Coop said. "She's too young to be seeing stuff like this."

"She can help people, just like I did. Like I still do sometimes."

"I'm not saying strip them. I'm just saying we wait until she's older and she can handle it better. When-"

"Stop it!" Whitney shouted. And with her shout came an explosion as the light fixture broke, glass shattering and raining down over the kitchen. Coop instinctively covered his wife and daughter until the falling glass had stopped.

Coop met Phoebe's eyes before looking up at the broken fixture. Their little baby was getting big and powerful very quickly.

* * *

Allison took a deep breath, looking her captors in the eye. They'd just explained their plan to her. She spoke, in a somewhat shaky voice, "I'm not doing anything until you let me help my cousin."

The demon scoffed. "Don't make demands, witch. It makes you look pathetic."

"He'll die before I lure Wyatt here anyway."

"What makes you think we care about that?" the dark lighter asked.

"Maybe Wyatt can't feel that we're in trouble, but if Chris dies, you can bet he'll feel that. And he won't be coming here unaware. He'll be coming to kill you." She paused, feeling more strength in her voice, though she was still terrified. "And if you want to catch Wyatt off guard, then you can't kill us. And if you want me to lead him here, you'll do what I say."

The dark lighter raised his eyebrow at his demon friend. "Check out the backbone on this one," he said. "I'm impressed."

"Impressed?" the demon seemed aggravated. "Let's just kill 'em both."

"No. She's right. He'll know if his family is dead. And they're not the ones we're after anyway. It's the Twice Blessed we want."

Allison had to roll her eyes at that. She took the dark lighter's words as permission and started heading towards Chris. She crouched down next to him, and her courage quickly shrank away into fear as she saw how bad it was.

"If you try to orb, I'll kill you before you even get out," the demon said.

Allison ignored him, trying to still her rapidly beating heart. Snapping into action, she shifted her feet so they were in front of her and pulled off her shoes. After tossing them aside, she slid her socks from her feet. She straightened, placing them one of top of the other and then folding them.

Gently, she touched his stomach, trying to find the wound in all the blood. She heard a groan and looked up at his face. His head dropped to the side and his breathing picked up. "Allison?" he asked, his voice barely audible.

"It's okay," she said. "You're gonna be okay."

"I don't want to die."

Allison swallowed her tears. "You'll be fine. This might hurt a little, but try to breathe through it okay?" She took a deep breath and pressed the folded socks over the wound to staunch the bleeding. She couldn't hold the tears in any longer when he let out a pain-filled cry. "I'm sorry," she said, but he was already out cold again.

She closed her eyes a moment and then opened them, staring at the socks, which were already turning dark red, along with her hands. When she opened them, she said in a hushed voice:

_The blood comes fast,_

_please make it slow._

_Hold this here,_

_to stop its flow._

The edges of the socks sunk down to his skin, as if held there by invisible tape. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and put her hand on the side of his pale face. "Don't worry, cuz. I'll get us out of this."

"Enough," the demon said loudly. "Let's go."

Allison sucked in a breath, leaned down, and kissed Chris's forehead. She then stood up and turned around, putting on the most pissed off expression she could muster.

* * *

Prue stood at the Book of Shadows in the attic of the manor, flipping through the pages. Melinda was lying across the sofa watching. "So do you have a plan?" Melinda asked.

"Not yet," she said. "But once Maddy gets back with Jess and Henry, we can figure one out. I don't even know if the demon has Ryan, if it has anything to do with him."

"Or if her premonition was in the past or future," Melinda offered.

"I don't think it's in the past. At least not too far. I just saw him this afternoon."

The girls heard Piper's voice as she came in, carrying several potion vials. Melinda sat up to accept them from her mother. "All right," Piper said, "I made these for you just in case your potions don't work. They're very powerful and should only be used in extreme emergency."

"Okay," Melinda said.

"I mean, don't just throw them if you're spooked. They pack a big punch," Piper said firmly.

"All right," Melinda insisted, slightly annoyed. "We'll be fine."

"You're taking protection with you?"

"I asked Dad about it, and he's getting some white lighters to keep an eye on us. If something goes wrong, they'll know, and they'll orb right in."

Piper nodded and then frowned. "Speaking of white lighters, where are your brothers?"

"Wyatt's still at work," Melinda said. "I don't know where Chris went."

"Underworld," Prue said, continuing to flip pages.

Piper sucked in her lips to keep herself from ranting. She nodded. "Okay. Well, I'm going to work on finding him. You guys be very, very, very-"

"Very, very careful," Melinda finished. "Yes, we will."

Piper leaned down and gave her daughter a kiss on the top of her head. With a smile, she left the attic. About a minute later, Prue said, "Found it."

Melinda pushed herself up off the couch and walked over, joining her cousin by the book. "Phase Demons," she read.

"It says they can move through objects by transforming into fluid states of matter, meaning they can turn into water," Prue explained.

"What do they want?"

"What do any demons want? Human suffering."

"But why some guy we go to school with?"

"I don't know. But Phase Demons are lower level demons, and from what your dad taught us, they usually work as minions for other demons."

"Minions," Melinda repeated with a slight chuckle.

"His word, not mine. So whatever his motive is could be tied to a totally different demon." Prue shrugged. "But Whitney didn't mention any other demons in her premonition, so this is all we have to go on."

The sound of orbs caused both of them to look up and Jessica and Madeline appeared. "Where's Henry?" Prue asked.

"You're lucky you got me," Jessica said. "Things are not going good at home right now."

"What do you mean?" Melinda asked, concerned that things had escalated.

"Basically Allison went after a demon by herself and Henry went and blabbed to our parents, which resulted in a lot of yelling between my brother and sister _and _my mom and dad. And now Allison is MIA."

"What?" Melinda said.

"From what I know, Allison is working on something with Chris, so I'm betting they're together. But my dad doesn't seem to take much comfort in that."

"When I showed up," Madeline started, "and said that we had a demon problem and we wanted their help, Uncle Henry kind of…flipped."

"Especially when my mom said we could go. But my brother started yelling about something and then Mom just said to go, so I went."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Prue asked. "We can probably handle it just the three of us."

"Trust me, I want to get away from the arguing," Jessica said. "So what are we going to do?"

"I think first, we need to find out if Ryan is the victim and if it's happened yet," Prue said. "He spends a lot of time at his sister's, so how about me and Madeline check there. You guys check his house. We'll see if there's anything suspicious."

"Are we officially under watch now?" Jessica asked, glancing up at the ceiling wearily.

"Yep," Madeline said. "We are temporarily charges of some random white lighters. So let's go."

The two pairs of witches orbed to their assigned destinations. Prue and Madeline landed in a secluded corner in the alley of a busy San Francisco street. "How do you know which apartment?" Madeline asked.

"I don't," Prue said. She walked forward and looked both ways on the sidewalk. Spotting a payphone, she jogged to it, listening to her sister's quick steps behind her. There was a phone book shoved on a shelf underneath the phone. "God, I hope she's not married," Prue said, thumbing through the white pages, looking for Ryan's last name.

Prue let out a sigh. "There's a ton of Schroeders," she said.

"A ton?"

"Well, enough. Okay umm…she lives in an apartment downtown. That should narrow it down a bit with the zip code."

"She's not a man; that should help. And we can assume she's single for now."

"Okay, I've got ten possibilities here," Prue said. "Let's just start at the top."

Prue and Madeline went back to the isolated area to shimmer to the first apartment. After going through five apartments and either finding no one home, nothing suspicious, or making up an excuse about selling Girl Scout cookies, they finally made it to the right apartment.

Prue knocked on the door. "Miss Schroder? Ryan?" They waited a minute or so, knocking a couple more times.

"Should we go in?"

"Well, it doesn't seem like anyone's home." Prue sighed. "Well, here we go."

The first thing that Prue saw when they reappeared inside the apartment was blood. "Oh my God," Prue gasped.

A young woman, presumably Lisa Schroeder, Ryan's sister, was lying prone on the floor, blood surrounding her body. Her eyes were open in terror. The two sisters stared in horror for several seconds before Madeline let out a choked sound.

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

Prue continued to stare at the dead body, the sound of her sister's retching running through her ears.


	5. Chapter 5

A.N. I worked hard to get this done before I go on vacation this weekend. I won't be back until Tuesday, but hopefully I'll have another new chapter on Wednesday or Thursday of next week. Thanks for reading!

* * *

Allison orbed into her bedroom. Her sister wasn't there, but the door was open so she went and closed it before telling the dark lighter that it was clear to come in. It wasn't hard to hear the yelling come from the den down the hall – the room that used to be their playroom when they were younger. For a second, the nostalgic feeling had Allison wishing she hadn't been so eager to grow up.

The dark lighter black orbed into the room and he immediately heard the arguing as well, even with the door closed. "If you try to alert them-"

"I know, I know. You'll kill them, or me, or both. I get it." The threat was beginning to sound empty to Allison since as she'd just pointed out in the Underworld, death in this family would instantly mean war, and these demons were trying to be discreet.

"You better watch your mouth, witch," the dark lighter said in a gritty voice.

Allison smirked as she opened a drawer of the dresser she and Jessica shared. Her resolve was increasing, but the fear of Chris dying still gnawed at her. Not to mention what would happen if they actually could catch Wyatt off guard. She could lose both of them.

Chris's blood had dried on her hands. She tried to ignore it as she pulled out a clean t-shirt and pair of denim shorts. "You can't watch me get dressed," Allison said firmly. "And I have to wash all this blood off, which I can't do in here."

Allison was annoyed when they ended up in the bathroom together, as she changed behind the shower curtain. It took a lot of soap and hot water to get the blood off her hands and arms, and it actually looked like the blood was still there with how red her skin was.

And then there was a knock on the door. The dark lighter gave her a sour look, and Allison quickly checked to make sure the door was locked. "Yeah?"

"Allison, is that you?" It was her mother.

Allison sighed. "Yeah, it's me."

"Can you come out here? Your dad's been out of his mind thinking something happened to you."

"Mom, I'm just getting in the shower. I'm not dressed," she lied. "And I have to meet back up with Chris," she added, to explain her continued absence.

"It'll take five minutes."

"Let me shower first," Allison said, getting very annoyed.

There was a long moment of silence until Paige finally consented. Allison listened to her footsteps fade down the hall. She turned back to the dark lighter. "Okay. I'm ready."

"Get your clothes," the dark lighter said, nodding his head towards the shower where her bloody clothes were laying. Allison picked them up and the dark lighter took them from her, probably to dispose of them himself.

Their next stop was Aunt Piper's restaurant. They black orbed behind the building where the dumpster was. The dark lighter looked her up and down, clearly inspecting her to see if she looked normal; in other words, not hurt, or frazzled, or scared, or upset.

Apparently she passed, despite all the emotions she was feeling inside.

"Just so you know," the dark lighter began, "our lair right now is cloaked. And if you tip him off, he'll already suspect something. I'll have no issue putting your cousin out of his misery."

Allison glared, but said nothing.

Wyatt looked up from the screen where he was inputting an order and let out a heavy sigh when he saw Allison. He did not want another problem on top of Whitney's.

When she got close, Wyatt started walking towards another table, fully aware that she was walking beside him. "Is this important?"

Allison sucked in a breath, wanting to say, 'Oh, no, not important. Your brother's dying, but I'm sure we can handle it.' But with the dark lighter waiting by the door, his clothes also different so he'd blend in better, she knew she couldn't crack. But she needed some way to tell him they were in trouble. Now would be a good time for a panic word.

"Just thought you might like to catch up with me and Chris when you're done here," she said.

"Yeah, sure, fine." Wyatt stopped at a table, and asked the patrons if they needed anything else.

"We're still staking out the Seer, but you might want to sense us in case we move," she added.

"Okay."

Allison knew that was her cue to leave, but she couldn't. Her feet were frozen to the floor.

"Wait," Wyatt said, finishing up with his table. "Actually, no, it's not okay. I want you guys to go to Phoebe and Coop's and see what's going on with Whitney."

"Whitney?" Allison repeated.

"Yeah, see, that's what you get for not staying in touch," Wyatt said. "She's had contact with Dylan, and I figure, with Chris's obsession with the kid, that's where you should be."

"Right, well, maybe later. We really can't quit what we're doing until we get the proof we need. So we'll be in the Underworld." Allison could feel herself breaking and one look in the dark lighter's direction told her he was getting impatient, and maybe a little suspicious.

"You've spent enough time down there for one day," Wyatt said. "I need you to this."

"Wyatt. There's too much to do down there." She looked up at him, staring him directly in the eye. "We couldn't leave even if we wanted to." She sighed and shook her head. "I gotta go." Without another look, she turned and left.

Wyatt stared after her for a couple minutes. She walked straight out the door, and a moment later a man standing near the entrance left too. Something about the look in her eyes when she'd said that.

"Halliwell," a voice came up behind him. Wyatt turned and saw Taylor, the manager.

"Your shift ends in two hours. You can stand around and do nothing then."

Wyatt frowned. "Actually, my shift ends now." He pushed past Taylor and headed for the exit, hearing yet another threat on his job. He knew it was wrong to just walk out, but family came first.

Once he'd gotten to an appropriate spot, he orbed back to the manor. "Mom!" He headed for the kitchen, peaking his head in, but saw nothing. "Dad!"

With a sigh, Wyatt tried sensing both Chris and Allison and came up empty. If they were in the Underworld, it would have easy for him to pinpoint where, since he'd done it a million times. Something wasn't right.

"Wyatt?" Piper came into the kitchen. "Your dad's tutoring at Magic School. What's wrong?"

"I think Chris and Allison are in trouble."

Piper sighed, closing her eyes and putting a hand to her forehead. "I've been scrying for Chris for the last twenty minutes."

"If you thought something was wrong-"

"I didn't," Piper said. "Not until now. I thought I was being paranoid."

Wyatt sighed. "I don't know where they are. Allison just came to me at the restaurant, saying that she wanted me to join them and that I should sense them in case they moved. But then once she left, I couldn't get a read on her or Chris."

"What were they doing?"

"Waiting for a demon to show up at the Seer's lair. Chris thought the demon might have some information on Dylan or Traya or something."

"But if you can't sense them, this might be a trap," Piper said.

"Oh, I'm pretty damn sure it's a trap. Unless Allison somehow got away to tell me. Except she _didn't _tell me. Not specifically."

"What'd she say?"

"She said even if they wanted to leave the Underworld, they couldn't."

"I'm calling Paige," Piper said, grabbing the phone off the hook. Wyatt nodded and headed straight for the attic. He should have known more; should have asked Chris more questions about what he was doing. Maybe if he had, he'd at least know the name of the demon Chris was following.

Wyatt stopped at the podium, looking down at the tattered cover of the Book of Shadows. "I don't even know how to start," Wyatt whispered, his forehead wrinkled.

Glancing over, he saw the map and scrying crystal out, just like his mother had said. "Won't work," he said to himself.

Piper came in. "Allison stopped home maybe a half hour ago. Said she was going to shower and then get back to Chris."

"Everything's pointing to normal," Wyatt said with a frown.

"Or the demon just wants you to think it's normal," Piper said.

"So you think there's reason to worry?"

"There's always cause for worry when you can't find someone." Piper cleared her throat. "I'm gonna call your dad and your aunts."

"And Prue," Wyatt added. "Maybe she could use her telepathy to get in touch with them."

"She went after another demon with your sister and the others. But she shouldn't be hard to find," Piper said as she left.

Wyatt nodded. At least they were doing something.

* * *

"Let the object of objection become but a dream, as I cause the scene to be unseen," Prue murmured. She watched as the bile stain on the floor shrunk until it disappeared completely. With a sigh, she stepped back into the hall where her sister was sitting. "If you're going to be sick again, we have to go."

"We can't just leave her," Madeline said, her voice shaking.

"I'll call the police. Anonymous tip."

"How can you be so calm about this? There's a dead body in there!" Madeline said, stray tears falling down her cheeks.

"Shhh," Prue said. She crouched down next to Madeline and pulled her close. "It's okay. It's gonna be okay." Even as she uttered these words, she was beginning to feel sick herself. She swallowed thickly and pulled back, looking into Madeline's teary eyes.

"We were too late to save her," Prue said. "But her brother might still be out there. And we can still save him. Okay?" Getting no answer, she asked again, in a much stronger voice, "Okay?"

Madeline nodded.

"I'll make the phone calls. You relax." Prue stood up and pulled out her cell phone. She first called Melinda and told her to meet them back at Prue and Madeline's house. She then called 911 to report Lisa Schroeder's body.

"All right. C'mon," Prue said gently. She held her hand out to her sister and waited for her to take hold so they could shimmer together.

Prue checked in with her parents before heading down into the basement with Madeline, where Melinda and Jessica orbed in moments later. The basement of Phoebe and Coop's home was largely left unfinished and mainly acted as storage for old boxes and furniture. There was a spare room on the other side of the stairs that Coop had at one time planned on making into an extra room for his girls to play, but it had never gotten finished. Now it was the resident "demon room" in their house, where they kept their supplies.

"Did you find anything at his house?" Prue asked her cousins, glancing briefly at Madeline, who was heading straight for the beat up leather chaise her mother had used in her first condo.

Jessica shook her head. "Not really. No one was home, and nothing looked out of place."

"But you guys did," Melinda said.

"I'm pretty sure it was his sister. She was dead. Could have been someone else, but I think it's a demon. Probably the same one Whitney saw Ryan with."

"The Phase Demon," Melinda said. She held up a wrinkled piece of paper. "I brought the vanquishing potion." And in her other hand she held a small velvet bag. "And the potions my mom gave me."

"You and Jess do the potion," Prue said. Her eyes found Madeline again; she had her head down on her knees and she was rocking gently on the chaise. Jessica and Melinda followed her gaze, concern just as evident in their eyes. Prue nodded her heads towards the potion supplies in the corner and the two girls moved in that direction.

"Maddy," Prue said gently. She sat down next to her sister.

"I just need a minute," Madeline said. Her short hair was going in all directions, and with how red her eyes were, she looked absolutely miserable.

"Can you scry for him?" Prue asked. She pulled out the plastic baggie that'd been sticking out from her back pocket and held it out to Madeline. "I found his toothbrush in an overnight bag he had at her apartment."

Madeline wiped at her cheek and took the baggie.

"Do this and you can be done," Prue said. "You don't have to go with us."

Madeline nodded, not saying a word. She got up to get the map.

While the three of them worked on their tasks, Prue pulled her feet up on the chaise and tried to clear her mind. With her telepathy, her range had gotten better in the last few months, but she still had trouble connecting to people sometimes. She hoped it wouldn't fail her now.

Being away from the dark, damp demon lair had allowed Allison to muster up more courage than she thought she really had. Now that she was back here again, the dark lighter and demon towering over her and her cousin dying in the corner, her arms and legs were shaking all over again.

"He'll be here soon," the demon said. "Why aren't you ready?"

The dark lighter raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think I'm not ready?"

The demon looked frustrated. "We have one second to make this move. You have to shoot him with the arrow the absolute _second_ he orbs in. It won't take him long to see that," the demon paused and pointed to Chris, "and kill us both."

"Then he won't see it," the dark lighter said calmly.

"We don't have time for this," the demon insisted. "He could be here any minute."

The dark lighter rolled his eyes. "Our lair is still cloaked. If you stay here with the brother, I'll take the other witch somewhere where she can be sensed. I'll have ample time to shoot him in the back."

Allison looked at the two of them warily and then turned her eyes to Chris. His breaths had slowed to almost nothing. Her spell had helped with the blood loss, but he was starting to succumb to the poison.

She needed back-up. She needed Wyatt to know what he was orbing into. She stilled her beating heart, took a breath, and tried making contact with Prue again.

_Prue?_

Prue snapped her eyes open. That wasn't the voice she'd expected. She slipped her eyes closed and concentrated on Allison. She felt her cousin just outside her reach, in a place that Prue could barely touch her. But she was there. She knew it.

When she realized she'd stopped breathing, Prue opened her eyes again, panting as her breathing tried to catch up with her. And she saw that Wyatt was in the basement now, talking to Melinda and Jessica.

"Wyatt?"

At the sound of her voice, Wyatt quickly turned. His eyes looked frantic. "Prue, I need you to try to reach Chris and Allison."

Prue was shocked. "Wow. I'm not the only one with telepathy."

"What?" Wyatt asked.

"I was just trying to do that. Allison tried reaching me."

"What'd she say?" Wyatt said.

"Nothing. All she did was make contact. I tried getting a message back to her, but she's too far."

"You still can't transmit to the Underworld, can you?" Wyatt asked, his face looking even more panicked. She slowly shook her head. "Damn it," he muttered.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"It's not your fault," Wyatt said. "I'm out of ideas. I can't sense them; I don't know what demon they went after; how the hell am I gonna find them?" He sat down heavily next to Prue. "I checked near the Seer, but they weren't there."

"The Seer?" Jessica asked.

"It's a long story," Wyatt said, waving his head. "She's not just my family; she's my charge. I should be able to find her. I'm supposed to protect her."

"What's going on? Are they in trouble?" Prue asked.

"And how," Melinda said. "Wyatt thinks a demon has them."

Prue felt her stomach sink. This was too familiar. Last time, they'd managed to save Whitney in time, but what if this time was different? She couldn't lose Chris and Allison, especially not like this. Not when she could do something about it.

"I'll keep trying," she said eagerly.

"What about Ryan?" Madeline asked quietly from where she'd been scrying. Her eyes were still red, her hair a mess.

"Our innocent," Melinda said to Wyatt's confused expression.

"Keep scrying," Prue said. "We'll find him that way. I'm gonna go in here where it's quiet." She stood up and walked towards the spare room.

"Wait," Wyatt said. "If you're having trouble reaching them because you're too far, then let's just go closer."

"You mean, go down there and try it," Prue said. "Sounds so simple."

"C'mon." Wyatt impatiently held out his hand.

Prue took it, but quickly told her sister and cousins, "If I'm not back in five minutes, go ahead and go without me." Then she disappeared in a cloud of orbs.

When the Underworld surrounded them, Wyatt went to let go of his cousin's hand, but he found that was still holding on tight. "Prue?"

"Sorry. It's just…" Prue swallowed her nerves. "I've never been down here before. Not for real, I mean."

The anger Wyatt felt towards the demons that most likely had Chris and Allison softened when he sensed Prue's fear. At sixteen, she was one of the oldest, but she was still so vulnerable.

"It'll be okay," Wyatt said gently. "We don't even have to move from this spot. Just give it a try."

Prue sighed and then took a deep, slow breath. She focused solely on Allison, since she was the one who'd contacted her, and she visualized the line of communication stretching across the Underworld to her cousin's unknown location. But then it was as if her telepathic line ran right into a wall.

"Something's blocking me," she said. But she kept trying. She put her fingers to her temples, squeezing her eyes shut tight. The strain she was using to push through that wall was causing tension in her head and quite a bit of pain.

"Prue, stop," Wyatt said, taking one of her hands.

"I can't stop," Prue said desperately as she opened her eyes. "We have no other way of finding them."

"I don't think it was the distance that was making it hard. If I can't sense them, it means the demon's probably protected his lair. And I guess that includes from telepathy too."

"But I got through before…or at least she got through to me."

"Maybe for a second, but-"

"I'm closer now. If I just try harder." At Wyatt's doubtful look, Prue said in sharp voice, "What other plan do you have?"

Wyatt had a determined look on his face, and he said with a tense jaw, "Follow me. Keep trying to make contact."

Prue nodded, though it was difficult to concentrate on doing that when she had to focus on where Wyatt was going and keep up with him. It didn't take them long to cross the path of a demon, though Prue doubted he had anything to do with Chris and Allison's disappearance. Wyatt seemed to think otherwise.

Wyatt shot an energy ball through his hands, purposely aiming just left of the demon to get his attention. The demon turned, prepared to get his revenge, but Wyatt's face seemed to spur on a swelling of fear.

Despite that fear, he still kept his typical demon cattiness as he spat, "What do you want?"

"I want to know where my brother and my cousin are," Wyatt said angrily.

"What makes you think I know?"

"What's going on?" Another demon approached from the dark passageway behind them, a glare on his face from the confrontation.

Without blinking an eye, Wyatt held his hand out in front of him, and the recently arrived demon went up in flames, a trail of smoke sinking to the ground until all evidence of the demon was gone, including the echoes of his screams.

"Spread the word," Wyatt said. "I'm looking for Chris Halliwell and Allison Mitchell, and if I don't find them completely safe and healthy, I am going to vanquish every single one of your sorry asses."

The demon seemed unsure if the threat was valid, but when Wyatt held his hand up again, the demon quickly shimmered out of sight.

"Think he got the message?" Wyatt asked Prue. She shrugged. "Anything?"

Prue was thrown by the question, and it took her a moment to remember what she was supposed to be doing. Wyatt had momentarily stunned her with how frightening he had looked just now.

Taking the cue, she attempted once again to reach Allison, resulting in another sharp twinge of pain in her head, and she once again came up empty.

"There's nothing else you can do," Wyatt said. "Go back. I'll handle this."

"Wyatt-"

"I can take care of it. You have your own innocent to save."

"They're not innocents. They're our family. I have to help."

"You have to go." And not caring how she felt about it, he held his hand up and orbed her back to her house. With a short breath, he walked further into the Underworld, on the prowl for more demons to kill. He wanted word to spread quickly that the Twice Blessed was on the rampage, and you better not piss him off.

* * *

A.N. I got tripped up with the scrying rules. At one time, early on, they said you could only scry for other witches, but it seemed like there were times when they would scry for mortals or other supernatural beings...so I just went with it. Forgive me if it's inaccurate.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, concepts, or plot arcs of Charmed.

Chapter Six

"Did he say what he was going to do?" Piper asked.

Prue shook her head as she paced the living room. "No. He killed the demon and orbed me back. It seemed like he planned to scour the Underworld until he found them."

"He's upset," Leo said. "He's not thinking clearly."

Paige let out a frustrated groan. "This seems like a no bones problem for us. We get kidnapped all the time."

"Yeah, us. Not our children," Piper said.

"Well, it's recently been a more common problem," Phoebe said softly. Coop put an arm around her on the sofa. She put her head on his shoulder and looked up at him. "Can you go sit with Whitney?"

Coop sighed and nodded. With how obstinate their youngest had been lately, Phoebe didn't want to leave anything to chance. Two of the children in danger was more than enough. He stood up and went back to Whitney's bedroom.

"We could try to call a lost witch," Paige suggested. "It's worked before."

"Let's get back to the manor," Piper said. "We'll try from there."

"What about Wyatt?" Prue asked.

Leo put a hand on her shoulder. "He can take care of himself."

Before Paige, Piper, and Phoebe could orb back to the manor, the sound of approaching orbs alerted them and they all turned to see Henry Sr. and Jr. appearing in the foyer.

Paige stiffened. "You should go home."

"I came to get Jessica," Henry Sr. said. "In fact, I came for all them. We can put 'em all in one room, surround it with crystals-"

"Henry," Paige started. "This isn't the time…"

"It's the perfect time," Henry shouted. "When Whitney was kidnapped, we made sure they were all safe. And now you're sending our kids out after some demon while our daughter is missing."

"They weren't the Charmed Ones then," Paige yelled. "I don't have time to argue with you. I'm trying to _save _our daughter." She glanced behind her quickly and latched on to Piper and Phoebe, quickly orbing out.

As soon as they were gone, Henry looked at the people remaining in the room. Coop had stepped out of Whitney's room when he'd heard the yelling. "Where's Jessica?" Henry Sr. asked.

"In the basement," Prue said.

Henry looked down at his son. "Go get her."

Henry Jr. obeyed, walking the few steps to the basement door. But Henry Sr.'s temper hadn't dissipated. He caught Leo opening his mouth to speak and cut him off. "No," he said. "I am done listening to your greater good speech. This wasn't supposed to happen this way. Not this soon."

"But it did," Leo said. "Our children are part of something big-"

"Is that really you talking, Leo? 'Cause it sounds like the Elders," Henry paused. "And I thought you gave up their crap years ago."

"You have every right to be angry," Coop said.

"You're damn right I do," Henry said. "These are our kids. You guys are fathers first, before anything else. Or am I wrong about that?"

"Things are different now," Leo said. "They are targets for demons, and if we don't prepare them-"

"Targets?" Henry echoed. "From what I understand, _your son _dragged my daughter into this. _He _put a target on both their backs because he thought he was indestructible."

Leo turned away, feeling his anger bubbling up. Coop put a hand on Leo's back and kept his eyes focused on Henry. "You can't do this, Henry. The demons are to blame; they're always to blame. Our kids might make mistakes, but it's not their fault."

Henry Jr. reentered the room. Alone. "She wouldn't come with me."

Henry Sr. shook his head, growing more and more infuriated by the second. He whipped past his son, thundering down the stairs. Prue glanced nervously at her dad, but he didn't look worried at all. He excused himself to go back to Whitney.

It wasn't long before the elder Henry came pounding back up the stairs. "They're gone."

"Gone?" Leo asked.

Prue reached out to Melinda and learned that they'd merely orbed into Madeline's bedroom. Seeing how weary her uncle Henry looked, she said, "They left on their own. They're safe."

"For now," Henry said bitterly. He didn't wait for his son; he stormed out, obviously preferring to walk the mile or so it took to get back to his house.

"Where'd they go?" Henry Jr. asked.

Prue seemed hesitant, but she told him. He crossed the living room to the hallway and Prue sunk onto the sofa. "What now?"

"You focus on finding your innocent."

Prue looked up at Leo, searching his face for any trace of concern or fear. His jaw was strong, but the wrinkles around his eyes were more prominent, as if his eyes were squinting between determination and panic. She wondered how hard it was for Leo to sit on the sidelines when the people he loved were in danger, especially when he'd been so used to protecting them.

"I don't think scrying was working," she said.

"It's more difficult since he's not a witch," Leo said. "Your telepathy hasn't failed you, Prue. Just because you couldn't find Chris and Allison, it doesn't mean you can't find your innocent."

Prue nodded and took a long, slow breath. She visualized him in her mind, stretching her sixth sense outward in all directions until it latched onto something. Her power pulled her towards a strong feeling of fear, of sorrow, of pain.

"_Ryan? Can you hear me?"_ She heard nothing, but still felt his presence. _"It's Prue. Are you all right?"_

"_Prue?" _It was quiet, barely audible in her knew what that usually meant.

"_Don't speak. Just focus on me and think what you need to say. I want to help you, but I need to know where you are."_

There was a long pause. "_I don't know. I think a sewer maybe."_

Prue opened her eyes and looked at Leo. "He thinks he's in a sewer. How do we know where?"

"He might be able to find the street he's under. The name should be printed somewhere," Leo said.

A moment later, Prue said, "I know where he is." She paused. "He sounds so scared." She got up to go get her sister and her cousins, but she stopped at the doorway to the hall. She turned. "Do you think he knows about his sister? That she's dead? How do I tell him?"

Leo frowned. "You just try to save his life. You can't change what happened."

Prue cast her eyes downward and sighed, going into the hall.

* * *

Wyatt had killed over a dozen demons, for no other reason than the fact that he could. But after his fifteenth kill, he felt the adrenaline dying in him and his chest tightened. She was his charge; he was supposed to protect her. And his brother? They'd always had each other's backs, and now there was nothing he could do.

He wasn't used to feeling helpless.

His hands were pulling at his short hair, and he suddenly threw his hands down and let out a loud curse that echoed in the chambers of the Underworld. His heart was pumping fast. So fast that he thought he was delusional when he felt a sudden surge of hope. Allison. He could sense her.

Without a second thought, he orbed straight to her.

* * *

The dark lighter was standing in front of Allison. They'd just walked to a new location where they weren't cloaked, which meant Wyatt would be there any second; Allison was sure.

She was shaking all over. She felt like everything she'd tried all day had failed her, but when she really thought back through it, she realized that she'd hardly done anything. Her fear had stopped her from doing much to help them. She'd always considered herself courageous and tough, but at the first sign of trouble – real, genuine trouble – she'd folded under the pressure. And now it might cost Chris his life. Maybe Wyatt's too.

But maybe there was still something she could do. She eyed the dark lighter carefully. She'd been too scared to take a risk before, but it'd far less dangerous once Wyatt was there. And if she could catch the dark lighter before the arrow fired…she might not have time to warn her cousin, but she could certainly protect him. Especially with the demon no longer there to threaten her.

His orbs appeared a few seconds later. The dark lighter held up the crossbow, taking perfect aim at Wyatt's outline, ready to strike the second he solidified; ready to watch the arrow sink right into Wyatt's back.

Allison held up her own hand. "Crossbow."

The crossbow orbed away from the dark lighter into her arms. She pointed and fired, just as Wyatt appeared. He turned just in time to see the dark lighter burst into flames.

With the dark lighter gone and her cousin and white lighter in front of her, Allison felt a surge of relief. She rushed forward into Wyatt's arms, hugging him tightly. "Oh my God, I'm so glad you're here. I was so scared."

"It's okay," Wyatt said, his own voice breathless with relief. "You're safe now. Where's Chris?"

Allison snapped back, her eyes full of panic. "We have to hurry."

They went through the corridor until they came upon the lair where Allison had originally been held. The demon barely had time to register what had happened before Wyatt held up his hand and vanquished him on the spot. They both rushed to Chris's side.

The bloodstain on Chris's shirt told Wyatt where the wound was, and he immediately set his hands to healing. Allison scooted up near his head. His skin was so pale.

"I don't think he's breathing," Allison said. She felt tears in the back of her throat, but she was too nervous to cry.

"He will," Wyatt said, keeping his hands steady, waiting for the blood to start vanishing. "C'mon Chris," he murmured.

Allison watched as Wyatt's still hands began to shake as he grew more afraid. The stiffness in his chest and shoulders told her he was holding his breath, as if he wouldn't breathe until his brother did. She reached out and wrapped her fingers in Chris's limp hand, urging him to breathe, to move. She watched the blood on his shirt like a fretful mother, waiting for the green in his shirt to become visible again.

Wyatt made a choking sound; either he couldn't hold his breath any longer or the tears had finally won the battle. But his hands stayed where they were, the glowing from his fingers continued to illuminate the dark cavern, shedding light onto Allison and Wyatt's scared faces, and onto Chris's white skin.

Allison gasped when the blood started to move, sliding inwards as it returned to its source. The sweat on his brow evaporated, and he began to look like the same fearless Chris Halliwell she always looked up to.

With her free hand, she pushed his hair back, looking down at him with soft eyes, which still had a hint of fear brimming on the edges. "Chris, can you hear me?" she asked.

He groaned. His hand tightened around hers and his eyelashes trembled as his eyes fought their way open. Wyatt relaxed his hands, the wound completely gone. He sat back on his heels, watching as the life came back to his brother.

When Chris's eyes were fully open, he scanned the lair quickly before trying to push himself up. Allison and Wyatt moved in on either side to help him. "You all right now?" Wyatt asked, trying to mask the way he was gasping in relief.

Chris nodded. "I think so." He rubbed at his abdomen where the wound had been moments before. Even though he'd been healed by Wyatt before, he seemed surprised that he no longer felt the pain.

The three of them were startled when white lights began to dance around them and they vanished on the spot. When their destination fell into place, they recognized the attic of the manor, the former Power of Three almost stunned that it had worked.

Piper immediately went to her sons, but Paige was saved the trip as Allison leapt to her feet and ran into her mother's arms, much the same way she'd done when Wyatt had appeared.

"Thank God," Piper said as she got on her knees to hug her youngest son. "I was so worried."

"I'm okay," Chris said, his voice slightly muffled because his head was buried into her shoulder.

"Barely," Wyatt said. "He almost died."

Piper inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, the close call hitting her hard. She pulled back cupped Chris's cheek in her left hand. "We need to have a long talk," she said.

Chris frowned, but he nodded, knowing it was necessary.

"We should have summoned them sooner," Phoebe said.

"It might not have worked," Allison said. "The lair was protected for the most part. It wasn't until the end when they pulled me out so Wyatt could find me. It was a trap."

"They wanted to kill me," Wyatt said. "Can't say I'm not used to that."

* * *

Prue, Madeline, Melinda, and Jessica trekked across the open field to the nearest sewer entrance to Ryan's location. While they walked, Jessica couldn't get her brother's words out of her mind. Henry Jr. had been quite angry when he'd come back to speak with her.

"_This is a war now. Mom versus Dad. And you're only making it worse."_

He'd accused her of becoming Allison 2.0, someone who put demons and innocents above all else, specifically her life. She hated that he saw her that way. She wasn't trying to be her sister. She was trying to grow into the witch that she always was. She was trying to find her identity in the Wiccan world, as a Charmed One. The way she saw it, they all had the same destination. Ultimately, they would all be powerful witches – the most powerful to ever fight for the cause, even surpassing their own mothers.

She would find her place, and she hoped Henry would too. In the end, her father would just have to back down. This is who they were, and he couldn't change that.

"All right," Prue said. "Here we are. Ready?"

The silence was most likely meant to be taken as a stoic agreement, but Prue knew they were terrified. She looked at her sister. "You don't have to come, Maddy. I meant what I said earlier."

Madeline sucked in a breath. "I'm sure it won't be the last time I see a dead body. I'll get used to it."

Prue almost felt like gagging. They were living the kind of lives now that seeing a dead body could end up routine. Things had changed so quickly.

Pushing that thought aside, she opened the entrance to the sewer and went in first. The three of them all followed closely. Prue whispered to them, keeping her eyes forward, "Have the potions ready, but Mel, keep your hands free so you can freeze them if it comes to that."

Melinda nodded and handed a vial to Jessica. Madeline held their one and only flashlight, pointing it to the ground instead of the walls ahead. They needed to contain the light as much as possible.

They were close to the approximate area Ryan had estimated his position at, but of course they reached a fork in the slimy, wet road. "We'll need to split up," Prue said. "You guys go that way, we'll go this way."

"What about the flashlight?" Madeline asked.

"We'll manage," Melinda said. "C'mon Jess."

The four girls split off into the two directions. Jessica and Melinda walked slow and carefully since they had almost zero light to navigate with. Melinda kept her ears sharp for any noise that could indicate someone coming. But all she heard was the telltale dripping and flowing of the water throughout the sewer.

"Wait." And then it hit her. "These demons can transform-"

And with that revelation, which came just a little too late, the water in front of them rose up and took on a platinum white glow as it formed into two demonic bodies. The light that reflected off their skin made it simple to see their sinister faces.

Melinda held her hands up to freeze them, but more water moved beneath her and she was thrown off her feet as the demon took shape. Jessica watched in horror as Melinda fell hard on her back, her head bouncing against the unforgiving surface of the metal sewer floor. She went completely still.

Jessica's wide eyes went from each of the three demons, and she forced her mind to flash back to all those lessons Leo had given them at Magic School. What was she supposed to do when she was outnumbered? That particular lecture was eluding her.

Their glowing bodies weren't hard to miss so she took a chance and threw one of her potions. She didn't wait to see where it hit before throwing the second one at a different demon. One of them made its mark, darkening the sewer as the demon's light was snuffed out. The other vial the demon easily avoided.

Not sure what else to do, she reached down and wrapped her hand around Melinda's limp arm, orbing out of the sewer and back outside. "Okay," she murmured to herself. "Just need to regroup." She bent down and shook Melinda. If her brother hadn't been so pigheaded and had come with, he could have just healed her.

She took all the potions from Melinda's pockets and orbed Melinda to the manor, knowing someone would be here to tend to her. Then she took a breath and went back into the sewer, alone.

Prue and Madeline hadn't run into any demons like their cousins had, but the constant sound of running water around them was putting them on edge. They hadn't forgotten the demons' ability to shift into water, and their eyes roamed from every source of water they saw, which was making both their gazes largely frenetic.

When the tunnel opened up into a larger area, they both would have preferred seeing demons to what they saw instead. Another dead body, this one of a slightly older woman, perhaps in her late thirties. The water around her lifeless body was pink with blood.

Madeline let out a breath, and looked down, her short curly hair falling in her face. Prue noticed her reaction was less shocked than the last time, and her stomach contents seemed to be staying where they were. She was desensitized already, Prue thought with a slight twinge of pain.

Prue approached the body and knelt down, wondering if perhaps the woman wasn't dead after all. She felt for a pulse, but felt no heart beat beneath her fingers. And then someone spoke her name.

"Prue?"

She turned her eyes to the corner where the voice had come from, Madeline taking the cue and shining the flashlight in that direction. Prue barely recognized Ryan beneath the grime on his face. His dark, almost black, hair seemed even blacker in the darkened sewer.

"Maddy, watch for demons," Prue ordered and quickly moved to Ryan. He was tied to a steel pole. "Are you all right?"

Ryan nodded. "I guess. What are you doing here?"

"Saving you," she said as she untied him. "Don't ask questions. Just go with it." She glanced up at her sister. "Are we clear?"

"I think so. No one's coming." Madeline took a couple steps towards the pair and suddenly felt a stabbing pain in her chest. She dropped the flashlight, the clatter alerting Prue that something was wrong.

"Madeline?" Prue dropped the remaining rope and got to her feet, approaching her sister. Madeline looked at Ryan warily, rubbing at her chest. Prue had seen this happen enough times to know what was going on. Madeline's empathy was causing some heavy emotion to bleed from Ryan into her.

"We've gotta go," Prue said, putting a comforting hand on Madeline's shoulder and pushing her slightly towards the exit. She'd just have to keep her distance from him while they escaped. "C'mon!" she yelled, heading for the tunnel they'd emerged from.

The three teenagers were almost out of the round metal room when the ring of water surrounding it began to thrash and move. "They're coming back," Ryan said.

The water came up in a giant wave, coming down over top of all three of them. The pressure of the water knocked them all down, soaking them to the bone. Prue recovered first, wiping the water from her eyes and throwing her long wet hair out of her face. The water was separating and taking several human like forms in a circle around them.

Prue reached for the saddlebag at her hip, the material sopping wet, but the potion vials still intact. She handed some to Madeline and started throwing some herself. The demons were moving inward, the circle getting smaller and smaller, but their numbers were also decreasing as the potion vanquished one after another. But the water around them continued to materialize into more demons.

Ryan seemed to quickly get the idea, and he reached across Prue's lap, grabbing some of the vials himself. He aimed and threw. The demon disappeared in an enormous splash of water.

"We're running low," Prue said. She sent a message to both Jessica and Melinda.

Jessica was running down the tunnel and all she saw was the backs of dozens of demons. They were surrounded and Prue had said they were almost out of potion. They hadn't prepared for this many demons. She was ready to go back and ask for backup. It'd be so much easier if Melinda was there to freeze them…and then suddenly she got an idea.

She thought for a few seconds and then orbed herself to the center of the chamber next to her cousins. She said:

_Find the heat here; make it cold,_

_enough to make the water hold._

_Freeze them once, maybe twice._

_Turn these evil things to ice! _

The temperature in the chamber dropped dramatically and the demons' fluorescent white bodies dulled in color as the cold moved through them, turning their liquid compositions to solid ice.

Jessica was awed by her own work. She cautiously stepped up to the nearest demon, staring at its white face, frozen in a menacing scowl. Drumming up her own scowl, she shoved the block of ice. She watched it tumble to the ground and shatter into a thousand pieces.

The scowl turned to a triumphant smile. Maybe they really could do this.

A.N. One more chapter. Hope you're enjoying it!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, concepts, or plot arcs of Charmed.

Chapter Seven

It was dusk, and Phoebe and Coop's house was mostly lit by lamplight by now. The couple was sitting at the table in the dining room, both of them drinking hot cups of tea. They both looked up when Whitney went in through the kitchen, getting a bottle of water from the fridge.

"Can you come in here for a second?" Coop asked, leaning back in his chair a bit.

"I had nothing to say when you hovered in my bedroom. What makes you think I want to talk now?" Whitney said.

Coop looked at his wife. "Our baby is becoming a teenager. I was dreading this day."

"Ha ha," Whitney said. "Can I go now?"

"We need to talk," Phoebe said gently. She added, "Not about Dylan. About your powers."

Whitney put her water bottle on the countertop and crossed her arms. "I'm not letting you bind them."

"Sweetie, please come sit down," Phoebe said. Reluctantly, Whitney uncrossed her arms and trudged into the dining room. She sat down at the head of the table, her parents on either side of her.

"If I hadn't had that premonition, they wouldn't have saved that guy," Whitney said.

"It's not your premonitions we're concerned about," Coop said, and then corrected himself, "Well, it's not your premonitions that your mother is concerned about."

Phoebe sighed. "What your dad means is that you've been having premonitions since you were four. It's these new powers that has us worried."

"Uncle Leo helped me with my telekinesis, and he'll help me with this one too," Whitney said, referring to the power she'd displayed earlier that day when she'd blown up the light in the kitchen.

"It's a lot to handle," Phoebe said.

"And I'll handle it," Whitney said. "You know, Dylan said my extra powers made me special. My own parents think I'm a freak."

"No one said that," Coop said sternly.

"Wyatt has twice as many powers as I do, _and _he got them when he was younger than me." Whitney seemed to have had enough, and she stood up. "I don't see the point of this conversation. I'm not a baby, so stop babying me." She went back through the kitchen, grabbing her water bottle and leaving.

Coop sighed, putting his head down. "She's scaring me."

"We need to give her more time," Phoebe said.

"She hasn't been the same since those demons took her. I'd like to blame it on her growing up, but I don't buy it."

"With what she's going through, I don't blame her. She's confused about Dylan, angry with us for not trusting him, and the growth of her powers on top of that. It's a lot to handle for someone her age."

"Which is why I think we should bind her powers," he said.

"Coop," Phoebe started. She sighed. "We just need to stop hovering. She'll be all right." She got to her feet, taking her teacup with her to the sink. "Besides, that's what older sisters are for."

"How do you mean?"

"They can hover in less obvious ways. Piper got through to me in ways Grams never could when I was young. Prue and Madeline can help her."

"I hope you're right."

* * *

Prue pushed the gate open to the house at the end of the street. The wood was worn and the hinges almost fell off when she moved it. The lawn hadn't been tended to in quite some time; there were dead flowers on the ground in front of the porch. As she got closer, she noticed someone sitting on a bench to the left of the front door.

Walking up the steps to the porch, she gave Ryan a small smile. He blinked when he saw her, like he'd been lost in thought. "Hi," he said, his voice hoarse.

"Hi," Prue said. She leaned against the post coming up from the railing adjacent to the stairs. "I just wanted to see how you were. And I figured I owed you an explanation."

Ryan didn't say anything, but his blue eyes looked into hers. Prue took a deep breath. "Okay, I'd start by saying that you probably won't believe me, but after what you saw today, I'm thinking you'll have little trouble believing me."

Ryan continued to stare at her attentively.

"Thing is," Prue said, "I'm a witch. A full-fledged spell casting, potion brewing witch. I knew you were in trouble because my sister has visions of the future, and I found you because I'm telepathic." Prue bit her lip, waiting for his reaction. When he still said nothing, she said, "I guess I'll go."

"Only if you want to," Ryan said quietly.

Prue shifted her weight to the other foot. There was a long moment of silence before she asked, "So how are you doing?"

Ryan shrugged, looking down at his hands. "I can't write the article with you," he said.

"No, I know. I can find someone else. I'm sure if you talk to Mrs. Martin or the student editors-"

"I'm dropping out of the newspaper thing," he said.

"Oh." Prue paused. "Okay."

"You can ask me what happened. If you really want to know," Ryan said, still avoiding looking at her.

"Sometimes it helps to talk about things," she said quietly.

"I did the interview, and then I went to her apartment. Couldn't have been more than twenty minutes…there was a knock at the door. Lisa went to open it. I was in her room, going over my notes. I heard a crash. She was already dead when I went in there."

Prue's expression softened considerably. She hesitantly went and sat next to him. She lifted her hand a few inches off her leg to place on his shoulder, but she dropped it back to the top of her knee.

"The demons kept referring to someone named Elroy. The man I interviewed was Joseph Elroy. It's like he set me up. In exchange for what, I have no idea…"

"Wait. What are you talking about?"

"They kept calling me a tortured soul. And a sacrifice. I guess caring about the homeless made me those things."

"I don't think Phase Demons do sacrifices. They must have been tied to something bigger," Prue said. "I can look into that-"

"That's not why I'm telling you this." He turned a little in his seat and looked her in the eye. "You saw that woman when you got there. The one they killed. She wasn't the only person I watched die. My soul wasn't tortured enough apparently."

Prue's forehead wrinkled, her eyes squinted in concern.

"It's that woman and her…" Ryan took a breath, closing her eyes for a short moment. "That woman's death is the one I keep picturing over and over in my head. The crying I've done in the last hour or two has been for her. Not my sister."

Prue didn't know what to say.

"You probably think that because I stayed with my sister a lot that we were really close. Honestly, it was just better than being here." He glanced through the window behind him. The curtains were drawn, but Prue could tell he had no trouble imagining what was going on in there.

"It's just me and my dad now." Ryan paused. "But I guess it kind of always was."

There was another long moment of silence. Prue took a breath and said, "If you ever need to talk about this…"

Ryan nodded. "I should go back inside."

"I guess I'll see you around." Prue stood up and headed for the stairs, offering him a smile.

"Hey," he said, getting up himself. She turned to look. "I won't say anything about the witch thing. And uh…thanks, you know, for saving me."

Prue's smile widened. "You were worth saving." She put her hand on the railing as she started to descend the steps. "You should really finish your article. About helping the homeless. A good heart like yours shouldn't go to waste."

At the bottom of the stairs, she waved. "Bye."

Ryan watched her go, wishing he didn't have to turn around and go through that door.

* * *

Paige looked at the clock across the living room and sighed, sliding her glasses off and putting them on the table beside the couch. She closed the book on her lap and tossed it on the table next to her glasses. It was beginning to get late so she decided to go to bed, but as she got up, the sound of a car pulling in met her ears.

Standing in front of her chair, she watched the front door, listening to the screen creak open. When Henry Sr. came in, he didn't seem surprised to see her there. "Where were you?" she asked.

"Problem at work," he said, putting his keys down.

"You sure it wasn't a problem at home?"

Henry shook his head, sighing. "Paige, I'm tired. I don't want to get into this now."

"We need to get into it," she said. She sat back on the couch, and Henry took the cue, sitting across from her in the armchair. "You know," Paige said, "I thought when we made it to our ten year anniversary, it meant you were in it for the long haul."

"That's really how you want to start? Making ridiculous accusations?"

"I didn't accuse you of anything."

"Of running out on you, yeah. You did. And I'm not doing that. But you're holding me to a promise I made fifteen years ago."

"And you're asking me to run and hide from every evil thing out there. I've never done that, and I'm not going to start."

"I didn't ask you to hide."

"You're asking our children to. Children you agreed to have even though you knew we would get here someday. You _knew _that, and you promised me we'd deal with it when it came up."

"Yeah, deal with it. Which is what I'm trying to do. You're trying to avoid it entirely." Henry sighed. "I wasn't a father when I made that promise. I am now. And I can't…I can't focus on a damn thing when I know what my kids are out there doing. Not after years of seeing what it did to you and your sisters."

"You need to figure it out. Because it's happening."

"I don't know if I can."

"Well, then we have a problem," Paige said.

"Yes, we do."

Several seconds later, Henry let out another sigh and said, "We're nowhere with this. Let's just talk about it later."

"And if there's a new demon problem tomorrow?"

"You're really going to let that happen?" Henry asked.

"I don't really control when demons attack, Henry."

"After what happened today? Our daughter was missing-"

"Our daughter killed a dark lighter. She saved Chris's life. And if you're wondering, Jessica killed several demons with a spell she made up on the spot. As for what happened today," Paige shrugged. "It's just another day at the office."

Henry nodded, staring at his wife in concern. "I see."

"I'm glad you understand."

"No, I see how it is you can sit here and tell me I'm being crazy. Because you're lying to my face."

"I'm not lying."

"You're just as concerned as I am, but for whatever reason, you don't want to tell the Elders to go screw themselves. You're letting them steamroll you-"

"Nobody is steamrolling me," Paige said with a ridiculous tone. "I always wanted my children to embrace their powers…"

"And become the Charmed Ones when they're fifteen? Is that really what you wanted? What happens when school starts again?" Henry asked. "Jessica wanted to take AP English. Henry's got basketball in November."

"They'll handle it."

"They had ambition, Paige. I don't want to start seeing grades slip. I don't want Henry to throw away interests out of obligation to you and your cause."

"Me and my cause?" Paige echoed.

"He doesn't want anything to do with it."

"He never said anything to me."

"Because he knows what you'll say. You'll tell him it's okay to be afraid, even if being afraid has nothing to do with it."

"Henry-"

"You have any idea what it's like for a kid's life purpose to be decided for them when they've barely started high school?"

"No one has said this is their life purpose. Piper opened a restaurant, not to mention P3, and Phoebe has her own column. You think being a Charmed One means having no life?"

"It did for you."

Paige's face went stone cold. "I chose to be a full time white lighter. I _chose _that as my life purpose. No one forced me to."

"And don't think I celebrated the free will you utilized there," he said with a bitter tone.

"You really want to sit there and tell me I was being selfish for choosing a dangerous job? How many times did I get phone calls from people you work with saying there was 'a situation?' And it was more than once that I ended up at the hospital where you were stuck with a gunshot wound!"

"This isn't about us, Paige."

"Then why did you make it about us?"

Henry took a deep breath and rubbed his hands tiredly over his face. He sighed. "I can't keep having this same fight."

"Then maybe you need to accept that we'll never agree on this."

"That can't be the end of it."

"It might be the end of something," she said.

In the hallway, Henry Jr. was sitting on the floor, listening to their conversation. When his dad had nothing to say to that, Henry Jr. got to his knees and grabbed the doorframe to his room to stand up. He waited a few more seconds. The silence continued. With a deep frown, he went into his room, closing the door. He fell onto his bed, but he barely slept all night.

* * *

Piper knocked gently on Chris's door, and when she went in, he was in the process of moving his blankets around so he could crawl in. Piper frowned. "Bed already?"

Chris shrugged. "I'm tired. Long day."

"Yeah, I'll bet." She sighed and lowered herself into the tattered armchair across from his bed. "You up for a little talk?"

"Talk? Sure. Scolding, no," he replied. He tossed a pillow to the end of his bed and settled onto his mattress, pulling the covers up over his legs. "I underestimated my opponent. I didn't think he'd be in league with a dark lighter."

"It was an honest mistake," Piper said. "But lately, you've been spending more time researching demons and following up on leads than anything else. You're starting to remind me of…" she sighed, pausing, and then she continued, "Usually when someone is as obsessed as you've become-"

"I'm not obsessed," he argued. "I'm just worried. We never figured out what really happened to Dylan and now that's he contacting Whitney, I think I have every right to be concerned."

"Yes, I know. But the fact that you've taken no interest in anything else? That's what's bothering me."

"It's not like I'm a hermit, Mom. I go out. I do stuff."

"That's not what I mean. I'm talking about your future."

"Oh geez," Chris said, rolling his eyes.

"Your dad says you don't want to go back to Magic School when term starts in a couple months."

"Not particularly, no," Chris said.

"Then you need to do something else. If you're not going to teach, and if you don't want to be a white lighter, then you need to start thinking about what you do want to do. Because full-time demon hunting is not an option."

"The more practice I get, the safer I'll be."

"That's not my only worry," Piper said. "I'm proud that you take your responsibility as a witch so seriously, but there are other things in life."

"Like what? When I chose to stay in Magic School instead of public school, I thought you knew that meant I wanted to pursue magic."

"As a teacher or a white lighter, yes. Those are your choices."

"That's stupid." Chris wasn't afraid of setting off her temper. He'd dealt with the wrath of Piper Halliwell before, and he knew he was capable of rivaling her. He challenged her: "Are you going to kick me out if I don't? Is this an ultimatum?"

"Of course not," Piper said. "Look, if you're so sure that you don't want a normal career, then give teaching at Magic School another try. If nothing else, it'll get me off your back."

"I just don't see the difference," Chris said. "If I'm out there hunting demons, I'm protecting the world. How is that any less noble than guiding and teaching witches?"

"It's not less noble. But it's less taxing. It's less dangerous." Piper leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees. "Sweetie, you're only eighteen-"

"Nineteen," he corrected.

"In two weeks," she said. "Regardless, I don't want to see you become jaded before you're twenty. That's what demon hunting does to you."

It was the first time in Chris's life that he'd seen a desperate look in his mother's eyes. And while he never was afraid of his parents, sometimes he felt the need to please them. Like he had something to make up for.

"I can give it another try," Chris said. "Teaching, I mean."

Piper smiled. "Thank you." She stood up and approached his bed, leaning down to give him a kiss. "Get some sleep. Love you."

"Love you too," he mumbled as he stretched out onto his bed, burying his head into his pillow. Piper smiled once more before she turned the light off and left.

In the hallway, Melinda was coming up the stairs with a glass of water. She'd just showered and her dark wet hair hung around her shoulders. "How's the head?" Piper asked.

"It's fine. I'm glad they got the demons, but I kind of wish I'd gotten to be there," Melinda said.

"You'll have plenty of opportunities. And for my sake, please don't get too anxious."

Melinda laughed lightly. "All right Mom."

"C'mere." Piper held her arms out and hugged Melinda close, minding the glass of water in her hand. When they pulled back, Piper asked, "Do you know where Wyatt is?"

"Umm, I think he went up to the attic."

When Piper got to the top of the stairs, she peered into the attic, but she didn't see her son. "Wyatt?"

Walking further in, her eyes scanned the perimeter of the room. Nothing seemed out of place – well, everything was out of place, but not any more than usual. She walked around the podium and looked down at the Book of Shadows. The page it was open to was towards the back of the book, and it was blank.

With a deep frown on her face, she closed the book and sighed.

* * *

In the Underworld, Wyatt stomped through the rocky hallways, a dark determined look on his face. He came upon two demons.

"What do you want?" one of them asked.

"To kill you."

"Hey, we haven't touched you or your family," the other said, apparently having heard about the killing spree he'd gone on earlier that day.

"Not yet. But you will." Wyatt held out his hand and watched them erupt into flames. Usually the smell of demon vanquish made him smile; now it just made him hungry for more. "Two down. A thousand to go," he muttered.

Wyatt had sent the two demons to the Wasteland, and they passed through Purgatory in two balls of fire, falling from the top all the way through the volcanic chasm in the center. On the ledge surrounding the tremendous gorge, a demon stood with her back pressed against the black rock, the once royal purple frock she wore torn and charred from her time in Purgatory.

"You found a way out yet?" a voice called down to her.

Annoyed, she looked up, seeing his tangled gray hair and yellowed teeth staring down from a ledge higher up. "Shut up!" she shouted. "I don't need you."

"You might," he replied, in a slight singsong. "That is, unless you want to spend eternity with your back against a wall."

"It sounds like you need me more than I need you. Why don't you just get out if you know a way?"

"Knowing a way and getting out are two different things. But we can help each other."

She kept her expression even as a few more demons fell through Purgatory to the Wasteland. "What is it you want?"

"My freedom. And to finally kill the Charmed Ones once and for all."

"I'm only interested in the Twice-Blessed," she said.

"And your plan to get to him was a good one. He'd never expect someone in his own family to betray him. But you chose the wrong person."

"She's the most powerful Halliwell apart from him! And she's young and impressionable. My son could have won her trust and convinced her-"

"Convince her with what? Her view of him will never change, no matter how much you twist the truth. It's a good plan. But it could be better. I've got years of knowledge that could help you."

She twisted her head upwards to see his face. "I'm listening."

* * *

A.N.: Well, that's the end! Of this story, at least. I've got lots of ideas for future stories in this series so I'll probably keep writing. I'm not sure when I'll start doing the next story because I've got other writing stuff I'm doing, but we'll see.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Hearing from readers keeps me motivated : )


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